Boarding Schools
by shikamaru's fangirlxxx
Summary: When Akatsuki high might have to close, the boys are not impressed at the prospect of being transferred to rival school Konoha High. Rated T for swearing. Contains lots of pairings eg. Kakuhida sasodei sasunaru shikatema Kisaita Kakairu Kankiba Peinkonan
1. Arrive

Description:

When Akatsuki high might have to close, the Akatsuki High boys are not impressed at the prospect of being transferred to rival school Konoha High. (This story has lots of yaoi pairings and some straight ones. No random smut. There is some violence and swearing, but it's not that bad. Main: Kakuhida, narusasu, sasodei, itakisa, Kankiba, Kakairu, Peinkonan)

**Boarding Schools**

Chapter 1

Naruto sat in the front of his brother's car next to Iruka, who was driving. School didn't start until tomorrow morning, but the boarders and teachers all had to arrive the night before, if they had gone home for the holidays. Iruka didn't actually have a house, as he worked and lived in Konoha High, as one of the year seven dorm supervisors. This year though, he had saved up enough to take Naruto to Spain on holiday.

Naruto had never been abroad before, and he hadn't wanted to go back to school but, although going on holiday with his brother had been great, he had really missed his boyfriend, Sasuke. Iruka did not know about their relationship, nor did anyone else, as much as Naruto loved and trusted his brother, he didn't want to risk loosing him. Sasuke and Naruto had decided not to mention it to anyone yet, because they had only been together a month and didn't want to tell everyone incase they weren't OK with them being gay. This was mostly a problem for Naruto, as Sasuke had no other close friends; he was always apprehensive about making new bonds as in his life they had been broken too often. He preferred to remain distant and cold; if he hated everyone then he wouldn't care if they hated him back.

Naruto on the other hand was probably one of the most popular boys in school, along with his best friend Kiba. He cared about his friends as well as his reputation and could easily loose both if anyone discovered he had a boyfriend. Especially Sasuke. Most of the girls would probably be ok, girls are in general less likely to be homophobic and they all saw Sasuke as a kind of mysterious genius as opposed to a loner, mostly because of his looks. The boys however were a different story. To them Sasuke was a complete looser, the kind of boy they would talk about if they ever felt the need to take the piss out of somebody. Naruto was his only real friend, and most people thought he should just ignore him. But Naruto was persistently kind to anyone he thought needed it, and eventually Sasuke just had to give up on ignoring him. He couldn't just pretend that he didn't care this time. He did, way more than he would have liked.

From there, their friendship got stronger, and even though it took longer than it probably should have for the Uchiha genius to work out why Naruto was acting even stranger than normal around him, he eventually did. And after Sasuke figured that out, there was not much to stop him mentioning that he maybe felt the same way. It was a month now and there was no longer a "maybe" about it. Soon they would have to come out of the closet publicly or they never would.

The small car entered the school gates and Iruka found a space in the staff car park. The brothers left the car and grabbed their large bags from the boot.

"Hey Naruto" Iruka said, watching his younger brother struggling to carry his large orange suitcase. "Do you want some help getting that upstairs? I could carry it for you. I'll get mine later."

Naruto agreed gratefully, he didn't want Sasuke to work out that he could only just lift his bag. It would be better to pretend that Iruka had insisted on helping him.

"Perhaps next time you shouldn't pack so much ramen. The food from the canteen is perfectly edible, why can't you eat that instead of junk food all the time?"

"Ramen tastes better. I needed to pack it."

"This bag is almost as big as you. You should only have your school books in there; you left your uniform and other stuff at school. How much ramen did you bring?!?!"

"But Iruka, I had to bring that much, it will run out otherwise. I couldn't live without pot ramen, believe it!

Iruka sighed and began walking towards Naruto's dormitory block, the bulging orange bag in his arms.


	2. Appartment

Chapter 2

On the other side of town, three siblings dropped their suitcases and surveyed the grimy hotel room in which they would be staying for the next school term.

"It's…" Kankurou began, but seemed unable to find the right words.

"…Cosy?" Temari tried.

"That's one way of putting it…" He trailed off again, staring in dismay at the room that lay before them. It was just bigger than an elevator and the damp, cracked walls were covered with a mixture of peeling, yellowed wall paper and suspicious black mould.

"It's…" Kankurou started again, but this time it was Gaara who completed the sentence.

"…It's… only got one bed…"

There was silence for a few seconds as the three stared at the stained single mattress that lay on the floor.

"Well at least it's better than where we stayed last time." Temari stated, trying to be optimistic.

"Last time we came to Konoha, we only stayed for two nights. We'll be stuck here for months. I wish Father would pay for us to board at Konoha high, we'll all probably die of the plague or something living in a place like this. That's if we don't get murdered first. This street would probably not be safe in broad daylight – Even _I_ thought those guys looked scary. Gaara is probably too young to know areas like this exist never mind actually live in one. It's not safe. It's not fair." Kankurou finished his rant, and glanced at his younger brother.

Gaara just continued to death-glare at the mattress.


	3. Appearance

Chapter 3

Hidan stood in front of the mirror in the room that he shared with Kakuzu. Facing it sideways on, he sucked his already flat stomach in. He stood like that, looking dejectedly at his reflection, and then sighed.

"F*ck, I really need to eat less", he said to himself, running his fingers through his silver hair as he normally did when he felt stressed.

Stepping back from the mirror he wondered if he was ever going to get any thinner.

In most people's eyes, Hidan's body looked flawless. Even Hidan himself had thought so until earlier that year. Recently however, he had begun to find more and more faults with it. Though they were invisible to anyone else, Hidan was becoming far more obsessed with his image than was strictly normal, even if it was only to impress a certain someone. So far though, as far as he could tell, Kakuzu, his money obsessed friend and dorm-mate still saw him as nothing other than another person to argue with.

So Hidan just became more insecure, mainly about his weight.

He was eating less and less, finding excuses to skip meals whenever possible or pretending to eat elsewhere. On top of this, it was hard to miss the amount of time he spent in the school gym or simply out running around The Forest (The city park that separated Akatsuki High from the grounds of Konoha high.). Even if Hidan claimed that he only went running because he enjoyed it, he was loosing weight at a rate that was gradually more obvious. No matter how hard Hidan tried to hide the fact, the rest of the Akatsuki boys were beginning to notice something was wrong.

Hidan heard the door open and spun round as fast as possible, trying to avoid looking like he had spent the past hour looking at himself in the mirror. Kakuzu had already noticed though.

"You really are as vain as I thought." He accused.

"What do you want?" Hidan said, ignoring the comment but blushing with embarrassment.

"Nothing, this is my room too you know."

"Well I was in here first so f*** off"

"You'll only stare at the mirror for the rest of the evening if I leave you alone. How self obsessed can you get? I don't even know any _girls_ that are vainer than you."

"You don't even know any girls."

"Nor do you"

"Yes I do"

"Who?"

"Umm…"

"Exactly, you don't know any."

"…Sh*t…"

"You swear too much"

"I F*cking do not"

"You just proved it. Anyway, I was sent to tell you that there's another gang meeting on in five minutes. It's in the basement, and Deidara says to bring the purple nail polish."

With that, Kakuzu turned to leave.

"Kuzu, wait for me!" Hidan wined, grabbing the nail polish from his bedside table and hurrying after his friend. He didn't like going down to the basement on his own.

Kakuzu ignored the nickname. Although he hadn't liked it at first, the way Hidan said it was quite cute really. Kakuzu mentally slapped himself for that thought; there was no way he thought of Hidan as cute. He was just his annoying dorm-mate.

Nothing else.

Kakuzu was worried about the Jashinist. He pretended he wasn't, even to himself, but Hidan had been acting kind of strangely recently. On top of the fact he hardly ate anything, he was becoming more and more paranoid about what the other boys thought of him. He would explode at the slightest insult, and spent ages choosing what to wear in the morning, when he thought Kakuzu was asleep and wouldn't notice how long it took him. Part of Kakuzu just wanted to tell Hidan that he looked perfect and that any sane girl would die to be with him, but the rest of him decided that was not a good idea, and that he didn't really care what Hidan did. He was just his annoying dorm-mate.

Nothing else.

Hidan caught up with him at the top of the main staircase. He was about to say something when Kakuzu signalled for him to be quiet. Anything they said here could be heard clearly from Pein's office, and the basement was a strictly no students area. The door was covered in signs including "strictly no unauthorised access" along with "Danger, high voltage wires". They would get murdered if Pein found out where they were heading.

Kakuzu going first, they crept down the edge of the staircase, hoping nobody could hear them. When they reached the ground floor, they dashed through the forbidden door, which lead to another flight of steps. It swung shut behind them and Hidan began to get scared, he had never liked the dark, as much as he tried to hide the fact. It was not much of a problem in the dormitory, as the street lamp directly outside his window prevented the room ever getting dark at night, but in the basement, it was pitch black.

"Kuzu?" He said, trying not to sound as frightened as he was. The other boy normally had the torch lit by now, what was wrong? "Kuzu, why haven't you turned your torch on?"

"I haven't got mine, where's yours?"

"M-mine is back in the dorm, I thought you had yours."

"Well I guess we're going to have to feel our way down these stairs then. The others will be down there already by now. They'll have torches, and there's a light down there." He began to make his way down the steps.

"No!" Hidan almost yelled.

"_Shhh!!!_ What's wrong?"

"N-nothing… Cant we just open this door slightly so we can see where we are going?"

"No Hidan", replied Kakuzu "Someone might notice we're in here, school rules are so strict here we could get suspended for this, anyway it's fairly easy to feel your way down", he continued downwards.

"Wait!"

Hearing Kakuzu stop, Hidan shakily stepped forwards and little by little, he caught up with him. Terrified, Hidan grabbed hold of Kakuzu's arm and held on tightly.

"Ow... Get off me Hidan"

"F*ck no." Hidan felt a bit safer now that he could feel Kakuzu beside him.

"Yes."

"No"

"Yes"

"No. Just keep moving, I don't want to stay here in the f*cking dark forever."

They continued down the staircase.

"What's up with you Hidan? You're acting really weird right now."

"Nothing…"

Kakuzu decided it was best not to press the subject; he didn't want to start a fight. The two boys reached the door at the bottom of the steps. Kakuzu pushed it open and the glow of torches from within illuminated the narrow staircase. Hidan let go of his partner's arm immediately, not wanting the others to realise how scared he had been.


	4. Retourned

Chapter 4

Sasuke looked up from his notebook to see his boyfriend burst into the room, followed by Iruka, carrying the immense, orange bag. It was not in Sasuke's nature to smile; however this was a moment when he would have done, had he not been the cold hearted emotionless Uchiha survivor that he was. His smile would not however have lasted for long as Naruto hurtled across the room, and pulled him into a life threateningly enthusiastic embrace. Iruka, who was watching from the doorway, could have sworn that Sasuke's usual mask of polite indifference was momentarily replaced with a look of pure terror.

"SASUKE!!!" Naruto yelled happily.

"…uughhheleghh…"

Sasuke seemed to be having difficulty breathing, so Naruto let go, concerned. Sasuke tried to get his breath back.

"..Sorry, I got a bit carried away, are you ok?"

"…I… think so… ", Sasuke was still breathing heavily. "…Hi Naruto, Hello Iruka."

Iruka dumped the bag on the floor. Sasuke stared at it, surprised.

"Naruto, what the hell is in that thing; it must be bigger than you. You only had some clothes and school books when you left, I helped you pack."

"Um… Its mostly pot ramen actually. I got quite a lot."

Iruka smiled. "Naruto, you got more than quite a lot. I don't think there's a word to describe the magnitude of what you have brought with you. Trust me, I carried that stuff upstairs."

"Surely even you can't eat that much. " Sasuke said.

"I can. I can eat anything, believe it!"

"I'm not sure that's a good thing Naruto." Iruka replied, "Anyway, I had better get going, there's a staff meeting in twenty minutes and I need to take my bag to the teacher's block. I'll see you tomorrow, bye little bro."

"Bye big bro."

"Good bye Iruka sensei."

The door closed behind him, leaving the two boys alone in their shared dorm. Sakura would not arrive until tomorrow, the only people in school being those who were related to teachers or those who had not gone home for the holidays.

"You have no idea how boring school is over the holidays without you. You had better have enjoyed yourself in Spain, because my holiday was shitty. I just had to sit in here drawing for the whole time. I like drawing, but there is a limit. I must have finished about five chapters, but they all blur into one after two weeks of non-stop manga-ifying without you to annoy me in-between. And the plot isn't very good."

"You always say the plot isn't good, and it always is." Said Naruto sitting on Sasuke's bed and picking up the notebook in which he had been working. "One day you will get them published and sell millions of copies all over the world."

"Oh yeah…" Sasuke continued sarcastically, sitting next to him on the bed, "And we'll both be rich and famous and live in a big mansion and you would do nothing but stay in bed all day with me and we'd both go out to parties and everyone would be like "Hey! that's Sasuke and his uber cute boyfriend Naruto, they're like sooooo amazing".

"Imagine that though, everyone reading "Naruto" and getting excited every week when a new chapter comes out. It will be so cool, everyone reading about us guy's being ninjas and beating up that lot from Akatsuki high. If it does though, can you edit out the bits with my sexy no jutsu though; I mean that would just be embarrassing."

"Nope that bit would definitely stay in. I like the idea of you wearing a skirt."

"Oi!" Naruto said indignantly. "You're the uke."

"In your dreams dobe."

"You are. You've got longer hair, and you're prettier."

"I'm not sure I like the idea of being pretty."

"Well you are, whether you like it or not. Believe it!"

"Really…?" Sasuke said sarcastically, pushing Naruto onto the bed and kissing him. Naruto tried in vain to gain control of the kiss, but failed as always.

They did not often get time alone together like this, and Sasuke was going to make the most of a rare opportunity. It was a good job Sakura wasn't due back until tomorrow.


	5. Atmosphere

Chapter 5

Deidara grinned broadly as the basement door opened. The other boys sat on crates in a circle. Kisame sat closest to the door, watching Itachi who sat next to him, doing absolutely nothing and staring evilly at the floor. Next to him sat Sasori, who was shaving bits of wood off the edge of his crate with the Swiss Army Knife that he had nicked from some year 8 in the DT workshop. Next to him and opposite the door sat Deidara, who stopped telling Sasori about some new explosive he had been working on as Hidan and Kakuzu entered. Next to Deidara was Tobi, giggling and spinning round in circles with one of the crates over his head so he couldn't see. Zetsu sat next to him, an amused expression on his face as he watched Tobi getting dizzier.

"Great!" shouted an overly enthusiastic Deidara. "Every one's here now, yeah! We can start the meeting, isn't this such a cool hideout un? Anyway, I called a meeting today to discuss the results of our little trip to Konoha high the other day un, and also because we all need to paint our nails again yeah. You've all got nail polish with you un?"

Hidan and Kakuzu grabbed crates and sat next to each other in the circle. The boys all pulled their nail polish out from the pockets of their uniform red and black hoodies (Akatsuki high had uniform hoodies for when the students weren't in lessons). Deidara passed the bag of cotton wool around the circle and the boys started to remove last week's now chipped nail polish and replace it with a new shiny, purple coat.

The smell of nail polish quickly filled the room, but the boys got used to it, they did this all the time. Deidara looked away from Tobi, who was using the nail polish to practice drawing butterflies on the back of his hand, and turned to Hidan who had sat next to him.

By now, the Jashinist was sure the shadows surrounding the circle were closing in on him. The piles of cardboard boxes and other discarded junk seemed like the hands of some many eyed monster, reaching out, trying to pull him into the darkness. He felt slightly sic, but for the sake of his limited reputation, he hoped nobody would notice. Deidara, however, had been his best friend since primary school, and could tell that something was wrong.

"Whats up, un? Do you like the new hideout yeah? You keep acting all quiet whenever we use this place un."

"No, It's a sh*t'ole and it's too bl**dy dark to see where I'm painting my nails. Couldn't we turn the f*cking light on, instead of using torches."

"Hmph… I like it with just the torches un. It makes it more… _atmospheric_. Yeah, a secret evil organisation like this needs _atmosphere_ un."

"For F*ck's sake, Deidara, were not a secret evil organisation. I mean look at Tobi. Does he _look_ like a f*cking criminal mastermind. No. We're just a bunch of kids trying to paint our nails in the dark. We don't need bl**dy atmosphere."

Deidara looked at Tobi, whose butterfly paintings had covered half his arm and used up most of his nail polish.

"Well it doesn't hurt to _try_ making things a little more dramatic un. Its not like anyone here is afraid of the dark, and its more interesting this way. Anyway the light doesn't work yeah."

"Yes it does."

"No it doesn't"

"It does, we had it on last meeting."

Deidara reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small lump of clay. Without even looking at it, he shaped it into a small, delicate looking white bird which he promptly lobbed towards the single light bulb which hung from the centre of the ceiling.

Glass shattered and made a tinkling sound as it rained onto the floor, startling the other boys.

"It doesn't any more un."

Deidara went back to painting his nails, ignoring the fuming Jashinist beside him. How dare Hidan talk about the organization like that? Of course they needed atmosphere if they wanted to be better than the gang from Konoha high. What sort of secret organisation didn't have atmosphere?

Hidan was trying desperately to think of an insult good enough to make up for the fact that he was now stuck underground in the dark.

"You.. you… you… B*tch"

There was one rule that all of the Akatsuki had learned to obey; _never_ question Deidara's masculinity. As soon as the word left Hidan's mouth, the blonde got up and punched him hard enough that he flew backwards off the crate he was sitting on. The back of his head smacked into the concrete floor.

"I'm a _BOY_ un…"

Deidara was standing in front of the crate on which Hidan had been sitting, glaring down at the Jashinist.

There was a tense silence as the other Akatsuki boys, who were all watching by now, waited to see what would happen next.

"What's the matter sempai? Why are you being mean to Hidan-kun", asked Tobi, who had only heard the later half of the argument, and had a reputation for frequently misjudging the gravity of the situation.

Deidara looked as if he would have done the same to Tobi as he had to Hidan if Sasori hadn't already grabbed him.

The blonde continued to thrash about, spewing threats and curses at the bewildered masked boy. That was until he realised who was holding him back, at which point he froze, blushing madly at the contact. Luckily, nobody noticed the blush in the dark, least of all Sasori who stood behind Deidara, his arms wrapped around the blonde, pinning his arms to his sides.

There was an awkward silence as Deidara stopped and Sasori realised how close he was to his partner. Zetsu took it upon him self to remove Tobi from harm's way and so dragged him up to the roof, attempting not to smudge his own nail-polish. Itachi and Kisame followed, telling the remaining Akatsuki to follow when they were ready to continue the meeting.

Sasori rather let go of Deidara with some embarrassment and they too felt their way upstairs in the dark after leaving Kakuzu their torches so he could help the Jashinist. Arguments between Hidan and Deidara were normally over quickly and grudges were rarely held.

After the others had left, Kakuzu went to check on Hidan,

"You Ok?"

Although the question was asked casually, Kakuzu was worried. He knew he shouldn't be; Hidan and Deidara did fight pretty frequently and no matter what had happened, the Jashinist seemed never to remain injured for long- at some point during year seven he had even been dubbed "immortal".

Injuries were not the only problem though, like Deidara, Kakuzu could also tell if something was wrong, but it was not like him to act sympathetic. Looking again at the Jashinist, Kakuzu would say he seemed scared, but as far as he knew, the Jashinist wasn't afraid of anything.

Hidan grunted, sitting up and wincing.

"…Shit… it hurts…"

"Of course it hurts, idiot… stop moving your head and pass me that torch, I need see what you've done to yourself this time. Why is it always me who has to do this? You should pay me for it..."

"B*st*rd…I don't make you do it. Anyway, it's not my fault. It's not like I f*cking wanted that to happen."

"Well what did you think would happen? You did call him a b*tch."

"But he broke the f*cking light… Jashin damned wannabe transvestite."

"We never turn it on anyway. Deidara likes it to be dark because it's more atmospheric, and the rest of us don't care."

"Piss off."

"No, I need to check you're Ok. Pass me the torch."

Hidan handed the torch over, and Kakuzu shone it at the back of his head, relieved to find that there was no blood. He wound his fingers into Hidan's hair, checking to see if there was a bump from where he had hit the floor. There didn't seem to be anything, but his fingers lingered in the silver hair slightly longer than was necessary.

"I'm fine. Piss off. My hair's all f*cked up now" Hidan whined, blushing.

"No. I just need to check. Have you got a headache now?"

"No"

"You're not seeing double or anything like that are you?"

"I can't tell It's too f*ckin dark, why couldn't we have this bl**dy meeting somewhere you can actually see. Can we go upstairs now?" Hidan grabbed at the opportunity to get out of the basement as soon as possible without admitting his phobia.

"Ok. You're probably alright… you might want to go to the nurse though if you feel sic, you could have concussion."

"I'm fine."


	6. Staff

Chapter 6

Back at Konoha high, Iruka had put his bag away and was heading towards the staffroom for the meeting.

He was a bit early, but then he always was. As the door swung open, he saw Tsunade and her secretary Shisune standing in the centre of the room. They were the only people to have arrived before him but that was not unusual. What was unusual was the fact that every single piece of furniture in the room was glued upside-down to the ceiling spray painted on the dark glass coffee table, just above Tsunade's head was a red cloud, outlined in white.

"I think," she said as Iruka walked in. "We have a bit of a problem".

It was then that Kakashi rushed into the room.

"Kakashi?!? You're on time for once?!?! What's wrong?"

"It's my form room, All the desks are upside-down and…" He trailed off noticing the state of the staff-room.

"Stuck to the ceiling?" Iruka finished for him.

"…Yes"

"Oh god…" Tsunade said."I wonder how many rooms they've done this to. They can't have done the dormitories some of the students were here over the holidays and I was in the staff block so they couldn't do the teacher's dorms. That just leaves the form rooms and the staff room, I suppose it could have been worse, but this will cost a hell of a lot of money. I'm going to phone pain and complain about the conduct of his students. Then I am going to have a drink."

"You can't drink; school starts tomorrow." Shisune stated anxiously; what Tsunade called "a drink" was normally enough to knock any normal person out for an entire week.

"Shisune, you're my secretary. I tell you what to do not the other way round. I can drink whenever I want; it's my school. I have to sort out this mess now, you tell the others about the email thing when they're all here."

"But you have to teach tomorrow morning, the students…"

"I don't care." Tsunade cut in,"Konoha students are as much to blame for this mess as Akatsuki. If it wasn't for the bloody school rivalry thing I wouldn't need a drink and the furniture would be the right way up and not stuck to the goddamned ceiling."

With that she left the room, leaving Shisune in charge of the meeting.


	7. The roof

Chapter 7

The Roof

Akatsuki high was originally a large house built in 18 something or other. The interior and classrooms had not been updated since the seventies and despite it's grand appearance from the outside, inside, it looked much the same as any other school. Scuffed laminate flooring covered the original floorboards and classrooms were painted a uniform sickly green.

A few years later, when the school had been at it's most popular an extension had been built to connect the building to the house next door. This had made the school much larger but since Konoha high had been built, nearly five years back, the number of kids applying to Akatsuki high had dropped dramatically and there were now many unused classrooms.

But the extension did still have benefits. It was two stories high with a flat roof. At some point in time, some biology teacher had decided to put a greenhouse on top of it. However, with the decline in pupils came a decline in staff and so the greenhouse had been abandoned. So had the small classroom with a fire escape leading across the roof.

Needles to say, the isolated rooftop offered an ideal meeting place if they didn't wan't to use the basement. A nearby streetlamp gave plenty of light so torches were not needed but the view of the graveyard and wooded park gave sufficient atmosphere and Deidara didn't complain.

Hidan sat next to Deidara again, there was no need to apologise; arguments happened all the time, but they meant nothing. Forgiveness was taken for granted; it had to be considering how much the two best friends argued.

"Hey Guys un! D'you think that Tsunade will have found out about the staffroom yet un? It was a great plan Itachi by the way yeah. You sure they won't have found any evidence though? Pein would kill us if anyone could prove we did it, yeah."

"If you all did what you were supposed to do then Tsunade can't prove anything." Itachi responded flatly.

"Hey it was Tobi's idea too!" The orange masked boy cut in. "It was a good idea."

"Yes, you're a good boy Tobi." Zetsu, the schizophrenic boy with green hair, answered "_Tobi Just thought to turn everything upside down. It would never have worked without Itachi to figure out how to get in with no body noticing." _"But Tobi did have the original idea" _"But Itachi is a genius Tobi is an idiot." _"Don't say that! Stop it we're scaring Tobi, sorry Tobi."

"Don't worry Zetsu; Tobi isn't scared, Tobi likes Zetsu!"

"_Fag" "_Shutup! shh!"

"What does that mean Zetsu?"

"_Shit.."_"Im gonna kill u!" _"I am you"_"Sorry Tobi it doesn't mean anything. Its just a very bad word. Not one that good boys say." _"It means…"_

Zetsu clamped a hand over his mouth and ran off.

"Where did Zetsu just go un?" Deidara, who was busy talking to Hidan about the upside down classrooms, was surprised to see Zetsu rush inside.

"Tobi thinks he has gone to take his medicine. The bad boy Zetsu was being too loud."

"Oh un." Deidara was worried. Not about Zetsu but because when the plant boy wasn't there he was generally Tobi's next victim.

"Deidara… can we play hide and seek? Tobi is a good boy! You can hide first."

"Isnt it your bed time now Tobi un?"

"Tobi doesn't know, Tobi lost his watch."

"Its five to ten yeah."

"Oh no! Tobi is late! Tobimustgonow. Tobihastobeagoodboy. Byeeee!" And with that he also rushed indoors.

"Thank god that worked un..." Deidara turned to Sasori. "Do you want to play truth or dare un? Now that Tobi has gone. Yeah?"

"Isn't that a bit childish?"

"Not if you play it properly un."

"Ok; I don't care" in truth Sasori would have said yes to whatever Deidara wanted to do, but he had never liked truth or dare. Something embarrassing always happened to him.

"Does anybody want to play truth or dare un? Tobi's gone now so we can!"

"OK, we have nothing better to do."

"Yeah sounds cool."

"Fuck yeah; we haven't played that in ages."

"Ok."

And so the game began.


	8. Sleeping

Chapter 8 (sorry its realy short)

"I cant share the bed with Temari- she's a girl." Kankurou wined

"Fine then. You can both sleep on the floor on Wednesdays." Temari sighed. Perhaps having a rota for the bed was not going to work but she couldn't think of anything better. Two people sharing a small single mattress was difficult but three would be impossible. Perhaps if she slept on the floor all the time then she would get used to it? Nope probably not.

"I could just not use the bed. I rarely sleep anyway."

"Gaara you need to try sleep. Your insomnia _is_ getting better. Infact, seen as you have trouble sleeping you ought to get the bed all the time and me and Kankurou will swap over."

"That's not fair! Then he gets the bed more than me!"

"Kankurou is right. I shouldn't get it more than you two."

"Ok. Then we're back to the original rota. Its Kankurou and me tonight. Then both of you and then me and Gaara. Perhaps we'll find an abandoned mattress to use."

"Iww.. thats gross- im not sleeping on a random mattress we've found in the street." Kankurou cut in.

"Its that or the floor. The mattress idea would probably be cleaner."

"Yes but still..."

"Anyway, I'll buy a sleeping bag and a mat as soon as I find a job. I doubt the allowance will cover more than food."


	9. Parapet

Chapter 9

Parapet

"Ok un. Itachi's turn first, yeah."

"Hn."

"Ok, Itachi truth or dare un?"

"Truth"

"Hold on!" Hidan interrupted. "Lets make a rule that if you don't f*cking do the truth or dare properly then you have to walk all the way along the parapet." He pointed to the bit of wall that separated the flat part of the roof from the drop below.

"No Un, that's too far. You might fall and die un."

"That's the whole fucking point. Any fucker would rather tell the truth than risk dieing."

"I think it's a good idea." Kisame spoke up. Itachi always got out of telling the truth and perhaps this rule would change that.

"I'm ok with it." Itachi said.

"Its settled then." Hidan said triumphantly.

Nobody argued with Itachi. Unlike his brother, Itachi's habit of remaining cold and distant had lead to him being respected instead of looked down upon. Where Sasuke was regarded as a loner by most boys his age, Itachi was by far the most popular boy in school. Even if he was not nearly as talkative as Hidan and Deidara, He was revered as a genius where as they were thought of as idiots.

"Ok un…"

"So what's my truth?"

"Umm… wait I'm thinking un …"

"I've got one." Kisame said, looking sheepishly at Itachi. Although he was probably closer to the Uchiha than anyone else was, he had a feeling Itachi wouldn't like this. He wanted to know the answer though.

"Hn. What is it then?"

"Um… If all of us here were girls… Who would you be most likely to go out with?"

"Good one kisame un!"

"Ha! You can't fucking get out of this one, seriously!"

Itachi remained unfazed.

"I can pick anyone here on the roof?"

"Yes. Anyone."

"Then I would pick myself."

"You can't do that. You can't fucking pick yourself bastard!"

"Actually I can. Kisame said anyone."

"Well Fuck You Shithead! That's not fair!"

"Hn."

"Ok un. Itachi's right as always, technically he can yeah... So who are you going to pick next Itachi un?"

"Hidan. Truth or dare?"

"Dare. Seriously."

"I dare you to spend the night in that tomb in the graveyard that has the door missing."

The boys had found that tomb during daytime a year ago whilst exploring the graveyard next to the school. Seriously who decided to put a school across the road from a graveyard? Hidan had at first been bragging that he wasn't afraid of ghosts or dead people (Deidara was blatantly terrified), but on discovering the open tomb decided that his hair would get messed up and it would be disrespectful.

"Fuck no! That's gross. Its got a dead person in it" And it would be dark. And creepy.

"I thought you worshiped death?"

"I'm a Jashinist. We believe that death is a blessing from god. It is the climax of our lives …"

He stopped.

Deidara was giggling at him.

"Its not funny."

"Yes it is un."

"You have to do it or walk along the parapet.", Itachi interjected, "It was you're rule."

Shit. Itachi had planned this hadn't he?

"But it would be disrespectful! That's why I can't fucking do it!"

"I thought you believed that what happens to the body after death is unimportant. That having a fancy tomb is a sign if lack of faith. Death is supposed to be the 'climax' right? So anything that happens afterwards doesn't matter."

"True but I cant just fucking sleep with a corpse in the same room!"

"I thought you weren't afraid of dead people. Its not like you to be scared of something."

"Bastard. I'm not scared of anything!"

"Sure you aren't Hidan." Kakuzu said. "Chicken."

"Nobody says chicken anymore Kakuzu. Seriously, you're so old fashioned. And I'm not a coward."

"Prove it."

"Fine I will then." Hidan yelled, getting up. For a moment Kakuzu was confused as he headed to the edge of the roof instead of to the door. Then he remembered the forfeit for not doing the dare.

"Hidan! Stop! You aren't serious are you?"

One foot was on the narrow parapet.

"Hidan this is stupid un! You might die!

"I won't. I'm fine! I just want to prove this to Kuzu! Er… I mean Kakuzu!"

The other boys were too worried to make fun of the nickname. There was nothing they could do, If they went to grab him and pull him back he might fall.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Itachi said calmly. "Deidara is right."

"I wont die. I'm immortal remember! Never lost a fight!"

"What about earlier in the basement un."

"That wasn't a fight."

"Nor is this yeah!"

"Hidan Just get down from there." Kakuzu said sounding panicky.

"Who's scared now then?" Hidan asked. "You're not worried about me are you?"

"No! I just will probably get blamed for this."

Nobody but Hidan believed him.

"That's just more reason to carry on going then." He took another step, Arms outstretched, wind pulling at the material of his hoodie.

"Dude come down."

"Hidan This is stupid un."

Another step

"For once I agree with Blondie." Sasori added.

Another step

"I think we all do."

Another step.


	10. Schizophrenia

Chapter 10

Schizophrenia

Zetsu walked back towards the roof. He had spent the last ten minutes in the school toilets trying to make his other side shut up. It was frustrating and embarrassing; at one point a year seven kid had walked in, seen him talking to himself and run out again. The kid's traumatized expression did not help lift Zetsu's mood.

Eventually his dark side (in this fic his dark side is only metaphorical. He looks normal but has dyed green hair.) got bored of waiting in the toilets and shut up so he started walking back towards the roof. He hurried, worrying that tobi would be upset about what he said.

Although Tobi acted like he hadn't got a clue what he meant, Zetsu knew he probably did. Tobi had a reputation for acting dumb and retarded but without the orange mask he was a completely different person. Either he was just attention seeking to the extreme or he wanted to hide his real personality from the others but Zetsu was the only one who had seen him without the mask and only because they slept in the same room.

As he approached the fire escape, Zetsu could sense something was different. Normally he would be able to hear them by now. Whether they were arguing or not, the Akatsuki had never been the quietest of groups.

Muffled conversation filtered through the door, he couldn't make out the words but the tone was clearly alarmed.

Something was wrong… His mind immediately jumped to Tobi. Worried, he reached for the door handle but his dark side held his hand still, hovering inches away from it. "_HeHe… You are worried…"_He whispered to himself"Yes. I am. Something is wrong let me open the door." _"But you're worried about _Tobi. _why him huh? Why not anyone else?_" "Because he is as you put earlier 'an idiot' and therefore the most likely to be in trouble. _"No. Because you like him don't you." _" Of coarse I do. He's my dorm partner."_ " You know what I meant." _"Just let me open the door!" _"Not until you admit the truth. I know its true. I can't read you're mind but you were _definitely_ checking his arse out this morning on the way downstairs to breakfast." _"I was not!" _"Yes you were I share you're eyes." _"Just let me through the door!" _"Not until you admit you are gay." _"If I'm gay then so are you. We share the same body!"

Clearly his darker side hadn't thought of that. Surprised, it released control of his hand and Zetsu flung the door open.


	11. Reality

Chapter 11

Reality

Hidan was half way along the parapet now, everyone watching speechlessly. He turned to face outwards, looking over the drop. The wind blew against him and he leaned into it. Leaning over the edge. If at any moment the wind stopped he would have nothing to support him.

His audience watching held their breath.

He leaned farther, testing how far he could go.

Kakuzu swallowed. "Listen Hidan I'm sor…"

At that moment a loud clang was heard as the door burst open, hitting the metal railings of the fire escape.

"_IM NOT GAY YOU BASTARD_"

Hidan swayed for a second, but regained his balance.

"Shit I am so sorry; It wasn't me it was him! I couldn't stop him. What is Hidan doing?!?!" Zetsu said in a rush, surveying the scene on the roof.

Hidan was standing on the parapet looking over the edge everyone was watching him.

Everyone except one person who Zetsu noticed was missing. "Oh my god, where's Tobi!?! What happened?" he said as loud as he could without alarming Hidan.

"Don't worry Tobi went to bed earlier. He's OK." Itachi said but Deidara rounded on him.

"What do you mean don't worry un? Hidan could die at any moment and you're saying 'don't worry'?"

"For the last fucking time Dei, I'm not going to die! Seriously, it's just a dare."

There was silence again as Hidan took another step along the parapet. He was moving faster than before and seemed less in control.

Adrenalin flowed through him. He felt so high up, he could see for miles, beyond the graveyard the he could see the tops of trees in the park and then the large playing field. He could see the main road, cars streaming along it, headlights gleaming. He could see Konoha high at the bottom of the hill. The lights of the dormitory block stood out against the building's dark silhouette.

There were so many people down there, In the houses, driving home from work and he was above them all. Up here he was free because nothing really mattered.

Up here he was on the edge of death and he loved it.

So he carried on walking. The wind rushed in his ears, and he was no longer aware of his audience. He was alone, all he could feel was the wind and all he could think was how nice it was to be so high up. So far away from everything.

Away from what? He couldn't remember but it didn't matter. What ever he had been trying to get away from for all this time, he had finally lost whatever it was. If he remembered he would have to face it again, it was better not to think. To stay high up here forever where nothing could go wrong.

But he couldn't. All too soon his feet were reaching the end of the parapet. He was running out of time here, soon he would have to go back. To whatever it was.

He didn't want to go. There was only one way to avoid going, and that was to fall. So that was the choice. Returning to the normal world or letting go of it forever. It just took one step.

He stood still, dazed, trying to decide. Swaying at the edge of the parapet, between life and death. He closed his eyes trying to think.

It was just one step.

So close.

Before he could make the decision, strong arms grabbed him roughly and pulled him back onto the rooftop. His feet were on solid ground again but it felt wrong. Voices were calling him but he couldn't focus. He opened his eyes to see who had pulled him back down when he was so high up. Looking up into the furious face of his dorm mate, reality hit him again and the adrenalin that had been keeping him upright vanished.

His eyes closed again as he sank to the floor unconscious.


	12. Worried

Chapter 12

Worried

Kakuzu knelt next to the unconscious Jashinist. Hidan was such an idiot sometimes, what if he had died? Yes he hated the boy, but what if something were to happen to him? He had to admit that he had probably been more scared than Deidara and the blonde was Hidan's best friend. Although Deidara had been hanging around with Sasori a lot more recently. Was their friendship nearing an end? If so who did that leave Hidan with?

The questions were not helping Kakuzu convince himself that he hadn't been concerned about Hidan. So he decided to take Hidan back to their room.

"Will he be OK un?"

"Yes, He's just tired. I don't think he's eaten since breakfast anyway."

"He told me he had dinner with you, yeah."

"Why with me? I ate with Itachi and everyone. Next time make sure that he eats properly."

"_Is everyone here gay?" _"I told you, we have the same fucking hormones!"

"Shut up Zetsu." Kakuzu was pissed and Zetsu was telling him just what he was trying not to believe. "I'm taking Hidan back to the dorm."

"Shouldn't we take him to see Konan un?"

Konan was basically the school nurse and secretary, as well as not so secretly being the head teacher's girlfriend. Nurse and secretary may seem an odd combination but the school was private and since most of the pupils who could leave had left long ago, it was mostly run on funding from the "Boy's Independent School Foundation". They were always short staffed; so many teachers doubled up.

"No. Konan's probably with Pein right now. I doubt she would appreciate us disturbing them."

"Oh…yeah..." Deidara looked momentarily disgusted. "You're probably right un."

"We had better go to." Zetsu added. "Sorry about earlier, we really aren't gay you know."

"Don't worry un. Everything's fine now yeah."

As Kakuzu lifted Hidan's body he was surprised at how light he was. He seemed almost fragile.

For a moment he almost considered disturbing Konan so she could check on him but thought better of it. An angry Konan would probably do more harm to the kid than good.

As he was nearing the dorm, Hidan's eyes fluttered open.

"Kuzu." He asked, clearly confused.

"Yes?"

"Am I alive?"

"Yes. Yes you are alive. But if you ever do anything like that again I'll kill you."

"fuck you…"

His eyes closed again.


	13. Eternity un

Chapter 13

Eternity un

As the others left for their dorms, Deidara watched Sasori as he lay on the sloping roof, looking up at the stars. Nervously, he walked forwards and sat next to him. The moon illuminated Sasori's pale face and the wind made red hair shift slightly. Deidara lay down beside the other boy, his head turned to the side so that he could see Sasori's expression.

Sasori smiled slightly as he sensed the blonde watching him. He was glad Deidara was here, it made him feel safe and warm, despite how cold it was on the rooftops at night.

Sasori had come up here quite almost every night after his parents died, during his first year at the school. He could still remember the pain, the feeling of being alone, standing right at the edge of the roof, under the empty night sky, one step away from nothingness. But something had held him back.

Something he could still hold onto.

The hope that somebody cared.

Deidara.

He knew it was impossible that Deidara would ever feel the way he did, but as the first year went past, their friendship strengthened. Just seeing the blonde's smile made him wonder why he ever wanted to jump. It was still no more than a friendship, but Sasori was determined that if he couldn't make Deidara like him, he would do everything he could to make him happy.

To let him know somebody cared.

That would have to be enough, he owed Deidara, in a way he had saved his life.

Deidara couldn't help smiling. Sasori looked so peaceful. He wondered what would happen if he told him how much he liked him. As much as he wanted to know if Sasori felt the same way, he decided it probably wasn't a good idea.

Sasori would probably be too creeped out to talk to him ever again, and he didn't want to destroy their friendship like that.

That didn't stop him hoping for more though; friendship was better than nothing, but it couldn't be enough. Deidara wanted to believe that he was the most important person in Sasori's life, just like Sasori was in his.

Glancing again at the red haired boy, he moved his hand so that it laid palm upwards next to Sasori's. He guessed that the other boy wouldn't notice, let alone actually hold his hand, so he was stunned when he felt the cold fingers touch his.

Suddenly very aware of the small space between them, Deidara's breathing quickened slightly. He was disappointed to find that Sasori did not hold his hand. Instead, the other boy linked his middle and index fingers together with Deidara's.

Deidara blushed, confused. If Sasori had held his hand properly, the meaning would have been fairly clear. If he had done nothing, the meaning would have been simple too, but Deidara wasn't sure what this meant. Did it count as holding his hand? Was it just a friendship thing?

He closed his eyes concentrating on the feeling of Sasori's hand in his. Trying to commit the feeling to memory, so he wouldn't forget.

Normally Deidara said that Art was only beautiful because it was so fleeting. It was only special because it could not last forever. Sometimes though, when he was with Sasori, he had doubts. Perhaps if moments like this could last for eternity, they would only be more beautiful.

"Danna?" he whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I could stay like this forever, un…" the blonde said.

Sasori chuckled quietly.

"So I was right then, beauty should be eternal?" he asked, teasing the other boy.

"No, un." Deidara replied stubbornly, breaking the magical atmosphere.

"Come on then," Sasori said, deciding that it was too cold and too late to stay out any longer. He let go of Deidara's fingers as they stood up and the two boys headed back to their dorm, Deidara talking constantly like he normally did.

It didn't seem real, the moment was over and although he tried to convince otherwise, he wanted more. He needed to be more than just a passing friend.

Fleeting.

He didn't want to let go.

* * *

ps. Thanx very much to my first reviewer =D

you are muchly apreciated but i can't figure out how to reply to reviews yet so i will have to hope you continue reading this far.

thanx 3

* * *


	14. Late

Chapter 14

Late

Shikamaru sat on his bed, staring blearily at the silver laptop in front of him. He willed his mind to concentrate on the page that rippled in and out of focus.

He had been working on the presentation all day (if working could define sitting up in bed staring at the computer whilst trying to calculate whether or not the troublesome-ness of actually doing the work outweighed the troublesome-ness of being sent to a very angry Lady Tsunade because he had "forgotten" to do his homework yet again.)

This time it was an open ended kind of project: he had to prepare a three to six minute presentation on the question "What is love?" They were all to present their views on the topic to the rest of the year.

If he didn't do any work he would face a very embarrassing three minutes, however there was always a part of him that insisted he could do it later. There was always time. He had better things to do. Like watch clouds. Or sleep.

It wasn't as though he couldn't do the work; it was simply that every time he tried to he ended up in this position, and he had been trying to complete it for the whole of the half term holidays.

Understandably, having noticed how much time his son was spending on the presentation, his father was expecting lots of praise in his English report this year. That was never going to happen- Shikamaru was not very popular with his teachers; this year he had handed in only two out of approximately twenty English assignments and both of them were over a month late.

Sighing, he shut the laptop down and turned off his bedside light, hoping that he wouldn't be chosen to do the presentation tomorrow, so he could prepare it in the evening. He certainly wouldn't get any work done tonight; staying up any later would only make him more tired the next day, and it was the first day of term.


	15. Mondays

Chapter 15

Mondays

Naruto awoke to blinding sunlight, feeling slightly disorientated. Automatically he tried to pull the covers over his face, but somebody was hogging the duvet. Wondering what was going on, he opening his eyes slightly to see Sasuke curled up next to him, still asleep and with all the covers on his side.

"Teme…" he mumbled, burying his eyes on his pillow to block out the light.

Hold on... the light… that meant it was morning didn't it? Monday morning, and they had forgotten to set the alarm clock. Sakura would be back any moment and they should probably be at breakfast by now.

Shit…

He opened his eyes and sprung out of bed.

"Sasuke teme!"

"uhh…" Sasuke rolled over sleepily only to be shook awake by his boyfriend.

"What is it dobe…?" he asked, his eyes still closed. Sasuke was _not_ a morning person.

"We've got to get up, the alarm didn't go off and Sakura will be back soon."

"In a bit…" He pulled the covers over his head.

Naruto yanked them off, leaving Sasuke with nothing but his boxers to protect him from the cold morning air.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"Are you listening, we have to get up! She should be here like…", he looked at the alarm clock, "five minutes ago. Thank god she's late."

"Who should be here?"

"Sakura!"

"Why would she be here?"

"Because school starts today; Its Monday!"

"School? School… Oh Shit!"

And he sat upright suddenly. "Come on you need to get dressed!"

"That's what I was trying to tell you earlier,_ teme_."

In the Teachers' block Tsunade winced as the breakfast bell rang. It didn't matter; she would just have a glass of water later, but the high pitched ringing did not help her hangover.

Tsunade was trying to make her eyes focus on the computer screen. The words kept going fuzzy, but she persevered; this was an important email.

If she could not stop the constant arguing between schools then the damage would only get worse.

Five years ago, the previous school in that area had been burned down by some of the students. A few pupils and some members of staff had been injured, but it was the sort of school that kids were sent to simply because they could not go anywhere else and nobody missed it. That was when the current "Konoha high" had been built. It was a modern building, with a huge grant from the government to ensure it did not turn out like the previous one.

It had been a huge success ever since it had opened with Tsunade as head mistress. She was proud of its reputation; parents no longer felt compelled to pay for their children's education when there was a new school down the road that produced better grades and had better facilities.

And so the rise of Konoha high was coupled with Akatsuki high's fall.

But that did not mean the students _had _to try making the other school's life a living hell. There must be a way to stop it and Tsunade thought she had found a way.

Or at least she hoped.

The basic principle was simple. If the pupils on either side were to learn that they were not as different from each other as they believed, then in theory the rift between the two neighboring schools would disappear.

In theory.

But after a good deal of thought, the plan she had come up with to make this happen had several flaws.

The first being that if she could not persuade the inter schools friendship week to partner her school with Akatsuki high in its anonymous internet pen pal thing then she was back to square one. Unfortunately (pupils being anonymous for privacy reasons) the inter schools friendship association was not allowed to know who her school had been paired with.

The email she was reading simply told her that Konoha high had been accepted and that they were able to use the PM service today.

This could be the end to the rivalries or it could just be a false start.

Whichever it was Tsunade had read what she needed to and the light of the screen was making her head hurt. She turned the machine off and went to find her diary.


	16. Jealous

Chapter 16

Jealous

Naruto headed up the dormitory staircase, ahead of Sasuke and Sakura. Sakura had joined them halfway through breakfast, having luckily been caught in a traffic jam.

It wasn't until they opened the door to dorm seven, that the two boys noticed how conspicuously not slept in Naruto's bed was. In contrast to its normal haphazard appearance, it was properly made, the white duvet cover still creased from having been folded. The sheets were neatly tucked under the mattress and the pillows neatly stacked on top.

They looked at one another, as Sakura marched over to her bed, so far oblivious to their obvious clue.

"Distract her." Naruto mouthed silently. If anyone could distract Sakura it was Sasuke.

"Um… Sakura?" He asked. She looked up from the bag she was unpacking, shiny and red it was obviously new. Sasuke expected her parents must have spent quite a lot on it before taking her on the cruise she had been bragging about.

Sakura often pestered her parents for new and expensive things in an effort to impress Sasuke. While he did notice the effort she was making, he couldn't help but feel slightly jealous. Of coarse he didn't want any of her things, but while she was away in some far away land, Sasuke had been stuck in school.

His parents were in prison at the moment and had been since he was seven. Nobody had told him what they had been convicted of, he was too young at the time, but Sasuke knew they were innocent. Despite this, thanks to Itachi, they wouldn't be coming out again any time soon.

Although he tried to convince himself that, had they been around, they would have been just as doting as Sakura's parents were, he couldn't ignore the fact that it was still his elder brother who's education they opted to pay for and not his.

"Yes?" she asked, turning to face him. His eyes fell on the new t-shirt she was wearing. It was pale pink, with the words 'daddy's little princess' across the front in cursive. She coughed nervously and Sasuke suddenly realized he had been staring at her chest. Ooops…

Looking up to her face again he asked "Um Sakura, I need to talk to you…"

"Go ahead…" She blushed again. It was not often that Sasuke talked to anyone but Naruto and she had noticed where he was looking earlier.

"Could we talk outside?" he asked, desperately trying to think of what he could tell her to keep her outside without looking suspicious.

"You mean like _in private_?" She asked, blushing more.

"Yeah…" he still couldn't think of anything.

"Ok." He stood and led her to the hallway outside closing the door behind him so she wouldn't notice Naruto messing up the sheets.

"I mean that… I mean when I… uh… said I needed to talk to you I meant um…" He still couldn't think of anything.

"Sasuke," Sakura, taking his hesitation as shyness, assumed this was the moment she had been waiting for ever since she first decided she liked him. "If you want to ask me on a date, then just go ahead… Of coarse I will go out with you!" She squealed, flinging her arms around his neck.

"Um Sakura… that's not exactly what I wanted to say…"

"Oh..." She let go disappointed. "What was it?" Without thinking he used the first idea that came into his head.

"Actually I'm g…"

At that moment he was interrupted as Naruto came out of the room and Sakura never heard the end of that sentence.

"Sasuke! You two can come back in now." Sasuke followed him, relieved that he hadn't accidentally come out of the closet. Sakura followed him back into the room where Naruto's bed had been successfully messed up.

"What time is it?" The blonde asked. Kakashi, their dorm supervisor, had a reputation for being late.

"9:00. Lessons start in five minutes. He should have been here quarter of an hour ago." Sasuke replied, checking the alarm clock on his bed side table.

"Why is he always so late…" Sakura whined. They couldn't go to their classroom and fetch their books until he had registered them.

As if on cue, the door swung open and Kakashi appeared looking thoroughly exhausted.

"Yo…" He said, sitting on Sasuke's bed. "Sorry I'm late; half the classrooms were upside down so I was working all last night."

"Yeah right… How can a classroom be upside down?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

"Akatsuki again."

"Oh… how bad was it?" Sakura asked innocently, if it was as dramatic as it sounded then they would have to think of a pretty good revenge.

"Very. I got absolutely no sleep last night. If you want to see, there are a few classrooms that haven't been turned round yet. And all the electric whiteboards need to be fixed.

Please don't try to think of a revenge strategy though. If I have to waste another night like that because they want to get their own back again I will seriously kill you.

I know you don't leave enough evidence for Tsunade to punish you officially, but if I have to do that again I won't care if it is official or not. _I_ know it's your form that does the pranks and I'm warning you; your life will be hell if the Akatsuki _ever_ come back here again."

"Yeah yeah… Just do the register; we'll be late for first period." Naruto was not put off by Kakashi's threats.

"Ok. You're all here…" He said ticking the boxes for dorm seven. "Also, there are a few notices. PSHE is in the IT suite, and also, there are a couple of new kids in your form this term. Kankurou and Gaara, you may remember them from last year. Kankurou is Gaara's older brother. They have a sister too but she is a couple of years above them."

"I remember Kankurou and Temari; I don't remember Gaara though…" Sakura frowned.

"Oh yeah! I remember them; Gaara is awesome, believe it!"

Sasuke just scowled, he didn't like it when Naruto was defending somebody other than him.

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**It would be very helpful if you could review with you're favourite/least favourite part of the chapters. That way i can find out more about what you guys like to read. **

**Ps. the story does have a plot planned already so although sugestions are helpful i can't necessarily change this because its already written. **

**Also, thanx again to sightlines for reviewing this. You are AMAZING.**

**XD**

* * *


	17. Reputation

**Chapter 17**

**Reputation**

At Akatsuki high, period one was about to start. Latin was in their form room, so the boys stayed in their seats after the bell went, Itachi, Kakuzu, Sasori, and Zetsu were seated at the back on the left hand side, Deidara, Hidan and Kisame sat on the right.

Tobi sat at the front, on the left, because he was a good boy and hadn't realized that the left hand side was reserved for populars. He had simply chosen the seat directly in front of the teacher's desk so she would pay him more attention than anyone else.

Deidara sighed as the teacher connected her laptop to the electric whiteboard. Latin was something he found particularly un-exciting. It was like a mixture between languages and history, neither of which were particularly creative, or useful, in his opinion.

The only thing worse than languages was geography, but thankfully he was dropping that next year.

At least you didn't have to write Latin; spelling was not really his forte, and if he couldn't spell in English what hope had he in any other language?

He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, trying to find out how much time they had missed while the teacher was attempting to make the computer work.

It read half past four and the minute hand was whirling round in circles.

"Miss Allison, un."

"Yes Deidara?" she said looking up from the laptop.

"The clock is broken yeah."

"Oh so it is… I'll get the technician to come fix it, the whiteboard isn't working either."

"Oh no, I can do it, un!" Deidara said a little too quickly, hoping to waste as much time as possible. She looked uncertain.

"This isn't going to be like the time with the tape recorder is it?"

"Well I _did_ get the tape out yeah…"

"But I had hoped you would do it without splitting the tape recorder in half."

"Get Sasori-no-Danna to do it then. He's really good with computers and stuff."

"Danna? Is that his middle name? It's very nice."

"Oh, um, no un. It's just a nick name. "

By now Sasori was listening in, but they didn't notice.

"Oh, so he likes to be called Sasori_ Danna_ now?" Miss Alison continued, "It's a strange nickname, but I suppose I ought to use it too."

"Ur… you don't have to un... Not everyone uses it yeah." Deidara said awkwardly.

"Of course, but if that's what he likes to be called, I don't mind."

"I would prefer to just be called Sasori actually." Sasori cut in suddely, making Deidara jump.

"Oh… OK." She said, "But if you don't mind asking, why is it your nickname? It's rather unusual.

Deidara answered for him, "I um… can't remember, un. I think it was the name of some TV character. He's had it for quite a while; its just nobody uses it that often." Deidara lied. In general he was quite good at lying; the school offered speech and drama lessons.

There was pretty much nobody at Akatsuki high with relatives who actually cared about them, with the possible exception of Sasori who's grandmother was too ill to make any decisions and simply ensured that Sasori was at a reasonably expensive (and therefore, in her opinion, good) boarding school, due to the fact that she couldn't really look after him any more.

Despite this, they were generally pretty rich and could easily afford to pay for extra drama lessons.

In truth, Danna had at first been more like an insult, from when Sasori unwittingly attempted to teach Deidara what true art was all about. Now though, instead of being used sarcastically, it was a kind of pet name.

While it normally is translated as 'Master', Danna can also be used to mean something more like 'husband'; but Miss Alison did not need to know that.

Nor did Sasori for that matter…

At least he didn't need to know that Deidara knew.

"Oh, right... So Sasori, Deidara says you're good with computers. Could you possibly come and fix this?"

"OK,"

"Can I do the clock, un?"

"No thank you Deidara. I will get the clock fixed at break."

Deidara shut up, deciding that he could ask again later when the computer was fixed. He had no doubt in Sasori's ability to make it work.

Sasori was a genius with any type of technology; he could make puppets, animate them using the school's video camera and unreliable computer system, he could fix the computer for Deidara whenever he made it crash, and could easily deactivate the alarm system at Konoha high, as well as edit the CCTV footage.

An electric whiteboard would be no problem for him.

Sasori reached the front and leant over the teacher's desk, trying to find the right wires. Dei watched from behind him as the red-head leant further forwards, reaching down the side of the desk.

Hidan elbowed Deidara in the ribs.

"What un?"

"You're staring at his arse again Dei." He hissed.

"Sorry un, I was daydreaming yeah…"

"I bet you were."

"Oh shut up, un."

"I was only being fucking helpful, If anyone else found out we are bi, they would think we were total losers, seriously." Hidan whispered. The rest of the class was making enough noise to hide what they were saying.

"We _are_ total losers, un."

"No we aren't. Just 'cos they are all fucking snobs doesn't mean we are losers."

"Sasori's not that bad, I don't think the rest of them are either un…"

"Yes they are. If we went to Konoha high or somewhere they would think we were like really popular and Itachi's lot were losers. It's just 'cos here all the popular people have to be clever and bloody teacher's pet like Itachi."

"You know if we went to Konoha High they would think _we_ were snobs, un. 'Cos they're all chavs like that yeah. We'd probably get knifed on like the first day, un. And Itachi _did_ frame his entire family for something or other; that's why they're in prison now; everyone knows that he isn't as goody goody as he acts, yeah."

"Well we still aren't fucking losers."

"You know if I was like Itachi yeah? Do you think Sasori would like me un?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure he's straight, seriously.", Hidan lied. If Deidara ever did get asked out by Sasori then he knew Dei wouldn't hang around with him anymore. As he was pretty sure Kakuzu just thought he was irritating, Hidan didn't want to say yes and risk being left alone.

Without a proper family, having no best friend would mean nobody would really care about him at all. What he really wanted was for somebody to love him, and only him, but with Kakuzu being in his eyes completely straight, Hidan had figured that was never going to happen.

"Oh, un." Deidara said, feeling disappointed although he had already predicted the answer.

"Best friends beat boyfriends anyway right?"

"Yeah un…" Deidara replied, trying to smile.

Just then there was a whirring noise and the projector flickered on.

"Finally I can start the lesson boys, thank you Sasori. I just don't know how these things work…"

The class was quiet again and Deidara sat back waiting for the lesson to be over.


	18. Speedword

Chapter 18

Speedword

Hidan groaned inwardly as the school web page opened. What amazing fun did the Cambridge Latin Course have in for them today?

It wasn't that he was bad at Latin- on the contrary; languages were the only subjects he was actually decent at- apart from drama. It was just that Latin lessons were so Jashin-damned boring.

They just translated stuff from the book, whilst Miss Alison showed them the online version on the screen. Every lesson. And the stories were all the same. Hey, other people might not have found it so bad, but he had a short attention span right? It wasn't his fault if he tended to zone out as soon as Miss Alison started speaking.

"Ok. So today, because it's your first day back and I'm feeling kind… "

Yeah right… kind. She was probably going to give them some kind of begging of term test or something. He hoped she'd let them see one of the Latin course video's. Then if he wasn't paying any attention he wouldn't miss anything actually important.

He wondered what Kakuzu was thinking right now, but stopped himself. He really had to give up on Kakuzu. The masked boy was never going to return his feelings so he would simply have to wait until he got over it and then get on with his life.

He still had Deidara, even if he was currently obsessing over puppet boy. As long as they didn't get together, everything would be fine.

Yes, that thought was selfish, but if nobody else was going to put Hidan first then he might as well do it himself.

His chain of thoughts was broken when Deidara nudged him.

"Hidan un, stick your hand up; you're good at this, we have to beat Itachi's team for once, yeah!"

"What?" He asked, confused. Looking at the board he realized what Deidara was talking about. Speedword was one of the games on the Cambridge Latin Course website that Miss Alison sometimes let them play during lessons.

The aim was basically to correctly spell the word in Latin before the other team did. The teams were split down the middle of the class between Itachi's side and Deidara's.

It normally would not have been classed as fun, but it certainly beat learning cases, and Hidan did like being competitive.

Perhaps he should volunteer for once. It couldn't mark his reputation so badly; Itachi volunteered all the time, the show off, and he was still popular. At least this was better than fucking verb endings and shit.

So he raised his hand, volunteering to be the first on his team to go to the board.

On the other side of the class Itachi raised his.

"Ok, Itachi, Hidan, you may go first." They stood up and made their way towards the board.

Hidan tried to ignore the fact that Kakuzu was smirking at him. Nobody beat Itachi at anything, he knew that, but perhaps if he could do then it would prove he wasn't as stupid as most people seemed to think.

Oh Jashin. Now he was going all nerdy in an effort to impress someone who was blatantly not gay. But still, he couldn't let Itachi win could he?

"Go Hidan un!" Deidara yelled, over enthusiastic as usual. He turned to face the board.

"Ok, " said Miss Alison "On the count of three, press start. One, two, three, go!"

Both boys tapped the start button and read the first word.

Behind.

Looking at the jumbled up letters below, Hidan tried to find the right ones before Itachi did...

'P'- 'O'- oh fuck, where was 'S'? Why were there so many 'Q's? There it was! 'S'! – 'T'

Both boys found the last letter at almost exactly the same time, but the computer decided Itachi had got there first.

"Wait, that's not fucking fair!" Hidan yelled.

"Hidan! Language! How dare you use words like that in my lesson?"

Hidan was about to reply, but realized the next word had already started.

'Rabbit'

Shit, what was the word? He tried to concentrate, but Deidara was yelling encouragement from behind him, making thinking kind of difficult. Itachi had already started.

Come on… Think…. What was it?

It began with a 'C' right… yes… culi… cun… cuniculus! Yes! That was it…

But by now Itachi had won again.

"That wasn't fair either!" he whined. "I wasn't ready!" Itachi was winning… he had to catch up.

He glanced sideways at Itachi, who was watching the board intently, his face a mask of pure concentration.

The next word appeared. 'Man.'

Vir. V - I – R.

Itachi realized Hidan had finished before him. That wasn't supposed to happen. How could _Hidan_ beat an _Uchiha_?

Still it was just one word.

Itachi knew would win the next few.

At least he believed he would.

Behind him, the others watched in amazement as Hidan won word after word.

By the time the score reached 18-2 to Hidan and the game ended, Deidara was practically jumping up and down, cheering, and the look on Kakuzu's face was priceless.

"Well," Miss Alison said, "That was unexpected…"


	19. Time

**Chapter 19**

**Time**

Hidan kept his eyes on the Latin text book, trying to ignore Itachi's glare. The clock was still broken, but he was sure the lesson must be over soon. It felt like hours since he had won the speedword competition and the class still hadn't finished. It didn't help that Itachi's eyes had been practically burning holes in his head the whole time he had been trying to read.

Seriously; it was just a game, why was Itachi so pissed off?

Hidan hadn't exactly expected him to be a good looser, but the death glare _was_ a bit over the top.

"Miss Alison un," Deidara asked, "May I fix the clock now, yeah." He knew the answer he would get, but it was more interesting arguing with her than doing the work.

"Deidara, I have told you already. No. Not after the tape recorder incident."

"But I can't really concentrate if I don't know what time it is un."

"I'm sure you'll get better at that with practice."

"I can't, un."

"It says the time on the whiteboard anyway."

"I can't see that though, un. Kisame's hair is in the way- it sticks up too much." The shark-like boy turned around to face him.

"It's not my fault if my hair sticks up. Anyway you can't exactly talk. Your pony tail is practically anti gravity."

"Geek un. I didn't mean it like that yeah. I just meant I can't see the clock, un."

"Whatever, I'll get you back at lunch. Anyway, Hidan's the geek now. He beat Itachi." Kisame laughed and Itachi's glare focused on him instead. He didn't notice.

"I'm not a fucking geek, blue."

"That's it!" Miss Alison snapped,"Hidan, mind your language. I want _complete _silence until the bell goes now. I've had enough of your talking."

The bell went as soon as she finished the sentence, slightly spoiling the effect.

"Right, you may go."


	20. Embarrassment

**Chapter 20**

**Embarrassment**

Shikamaru looked up as Mrs. Stokes stalked into the room. He wouldn't normally bother, but today he was nervous about the presentation thing. It was one thing not handing in homework, but he didn't want to spend five minutes standing in front of the class looking like an idiot.

"Good morning class." They stood up, even Shikamaru for once.

"Good morning Mrs. Stokes…"

"Is everyone here today?" There were general murmurs of agreement.

"Ah! Good! No, don't unpack your bags, we're going somewhere."

Oh shit… she was going to make them perform their presentations in the hall or something…

"Yes I know some of you were supposed to be doing you're presentations today, but the GCSE drama group are doing a dress rehearsal of twelfth night today, and I said that you could be their practice audience."

Shikamaru may have continued to look bored but inside he was doing a victory dance…

Yesssss!

He was SAVED!

Thank you Mrs. Stokes and GCSE drama!!!!!

Thank god for that… and no lesson either.

Inner Shika continued to dance all the way to the drama studio, ignoring Ino's whining about having practiced all last night in front of the mirror, and how she would have to do it all over again tonight now.

The class hushed as they filed into the dimly lit drama studio. Naruto and Sasuke's class was in there too, so Shikamaru ended up sitting right at the back, squashed between Choji, and a blonde girl a year or so older than him. She looked as though she would have eaten him alive if he disturbed her.

He briefly wondered what she was doing there, but decided that she must be a member of the drama class who for some reason wasn't in the play. Perhaps she was new here?

It didn't matter though; he rested his chin on his hands and closed his eyes. Nobody would notice if he wasn't paying attention, he was right at the back in the dark. He couldn't even see the stage from here, so what else was he supposed to do?

At least he didn't snore…

He woke up as he felt himself being shoved painfully to the floor. Looking up he saw that the girl was now glaring at him.

He would have yelped, but the play was still going on so he had to be quiet…

Grimacing with pain, he got up and sat back on the bench again, wondering what had happened. Annoyed, he realized that she must have been the one that pushed him off.

"Troublesome woman," he hissed, "I can go to sleep if I want cant I?"

"Not if you're going to end up lying on my lap again, idiot." She hissed back.

"I- WHAT?" He suddenly realized what had happened.

Oh shit, no wonder she looked so pissed off. He turned to Choji and Ino for support, and saw that they were both trying their hardest not to laugh at him.

He would never live this down. Apart from anything, the new girl was quite pretty, and so Ino would automatically decide that he fancied her or something. Which he definitely did not.

This girl was about as troublesome as it got.

He couldn't help noticing that she had nice hair though, it was in four bunches, all kind of spiky, not smooth like Ino's ponytail. Spiky was good though, he liked it.

Typical, now he couldn't risk falling asleep, incase he ended up on top of her again. It was just too embarrassing.

And Ino was not going to let him forget this.

And the girl was still glaring at him.


	21. KitKat?

**Chapter 21**

**KitKat?**

"Dude, what's up? I haven't seen you in like two weeks!" Kiba yelled as Naruto entered the pool court (The pool court was a grass covered area, with a pond in the middle, surrounded by the science block.).

"Kiba! Hey! How was holidays?"

"Great thanks, and yours?"

"Just AMAZING. Believe it! Oh, and this is Kankurou by the way, Cat boy, meet Dog boy! This is Kiba!"

"Hi!" Kankurou grinned.

"Oh, are you new this term then?"

"Actually we came here a couple of years ago, but just for a few days. Don't worry, nobody else remembers me." He laughed.

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"Oh, Me and my brother and sister. Nothing weird," he said, grinning again. "Temari is two years above us, and Gaara's in our year. We aren't twins, he's only a bit younger than me, but he was adopted."

"Oh, so are you boarding?"

"No, we have an apartment thing." He didn't want to mention how shitty it was. Having an apartment sounded kind of cool, as long as nobody knew where it was.

He watched as Kiba unwrapped a Kit-Kat.

"Want some?"

"Um…"

Temari said they didn't have enough funds for break, so he wouldn't be able to pay him back. They were on a strict £1.10 per day allowance, which meant a bread roll each from the dining hall for lunch (Temari would check what he had bought), and he hardly knew Kiba. He couldn't just nick his food.

"My mum always gives me two bars so there's one for a friend or something. Have this one." He tossed it to him.

"Thanks!" He grinned again. This school was certainly better than the last one he had been to.

Naruto looked up from the pot ramen he was stirring. (He kept the hot water in a vacuum flask, so he could have it at break.)

"Don't worry about saving any for Gaara; I said he could have some ramen if he had no break. And I think Temari said something about Shikamaru owing her for something."

"Oh. Thanks about Gaara; you guys are like mega-generous."

"Nah, don't worry." Kiba answered for him. "Naruto always has tonnes of that stuff. Your brother probably is saving him from salt poisoning or something."

"I'm not going to die Kiba."

"Yes you are, eventually."

"Well you're being cheerful today…"

Kankurou bit into the Kit-Kat. It had been a while since he had eaten anything that actually tasted edible; Temari was not the best of cooks.

"Why are you cat-boy by the way?" Kiba asked.

"Oh, that? Because of the hoodie." He flicked one of the cat ears. "Naruto just came up with it. He said I ought to meet you because you're dog boy and everything. Why _are_ you dog boy?"

"Hehe… Naruto came up with that too. Several reasons. Firstly, my family has, like, _loads_ of dogs. Secondly, because according to Naruto I have fangs." He grinned widely so Kankurou could see that his canine teeth were slightly longer than normal.

"Oh and also, my name actually means 'Fang'. That's it basically."

"Right… and your mum gives you Kit-Kat to eat every day."

"Yeah.", he laughed. "I hadn't thought of that."

By now Naruto had finished eating. "What time is it Kiba?"

"Uhrr…" he frowned at his watch, "Twenty five past."

"Oh, um, I've got to go now then. I've got French with Sasuke next and I said I'd meet him in the form room."

"Him again… You've been spending way too much time with him recently. Its like you've got some weird gay crush on him or something," he laughed, "Anyway, see you later then."

Naruto had turned away by then, trying not to look pissed off. Sasuke was not some 'weird, gay, crush'. He was his boyfriend. Ok, so Naruto himself acted homophobic sometimes, but that was only because he didn't want anyone to find out anything. Kiba didn't have any excuse.

With Kiba it wasn't just an act. If he found out Naruto and Sasuke were together, Naruto was sure he would think they were freaks, and that was just another reason to keep the relationship secret.

By the time Naruto had got to the form room, he was in a pretty dismal mood. Sasuke was sitting on one of the desks, his bag already packed, but Naruto ignored him at first, heading straight to his book locker.

"What's wrong, dobe?"

"Kiba."

"Oh, what did he do?"

"It doesn't matter", he said, flinging open the door of his book locker and rummaging inside.

"Yes it does."

"Not to you."

"Yes it does, you're my…"

"SHUT UP! There could be people out in the corridor, teme."

"And?" Sasuke was angry too now, he had tried to be sympathetic but Naruto was shutting him out again. And denying that they were together. Even though he knew it was for the best, it still hurt that Naruto wanted to keep things secret.

"What if there are? Why do you have to be so _fucking_ ashamed of me? Every time I say something even _remotely_ nice, you have to cover up. You pretend I'm not even a _friend_!"

There was a tense silence as Naruto rummaged in his locker, looking like he was trying to hide in it. He stopped, realizing he wasn't getting anywhere.

"Uhr... Teme?"

"Yes?" Sasuke replied icily.

"Can I share your textbook?" he asked sheepishly.

Sasuke sighed, giving up. "Yeah, ok."

"Thank you." The blonde smiled, swinging his rucksack onto his back and Sasuke slid off the desk.

Throughout French, they sat next to each other, passing notes and pictures as they usually did. Naruto actually knew perfectly well where his textbook was. He liked sharing with the Uchiha though because it gave him an excuse to sit just a little bit closer than normal.


	22. PSE

**Chapter 22**

**PSE**

Jiraiya's form lined up outside the IT suite, waiting for their tutor to arrive. PSE was normally held in form rooms so everyone was wondering why they had had a room change.

"I hope we don't have Sex Ed." Kiba muttered looking slightly pale. He wasn't the type to go squeamish, but Jiraiya tended to go into a little too much detail on that particular topic.

"Ugh… It had better not be human rights _again_…" Naruto added.

"I don't really care what it is; we don't actually have to do the work set in PSE so I can just go to sleep for an hour. Hopefully." Shikamaru yawned.

"Well I we're in the IT suite then it must be something pretty youthful." Lee commented.

"Why are we not destined to have _interesting_ PSE lessons?" that was Neji.

"Perhaps we'll be doing first aid; I did that in guides a couple of years ago." Sakura told Ino.

"Oh I think I did that badge in scouts." She replied, "Kiss of life and stuff, but we had to use the dummies unfortunately."

Sakura's eyes lit up, "Hey, do you think Sasuke would let…"

At that point, Jiraiya flung open the double doors that separated the corridor from the staircase.

"Good morning class!"

"Its afternoon."

"It is? Oh… Well, Good afternoon class!"

Nobody answered.

"Ah well, just go find computers. Oh and be warned, the internet at this school has maturity filters. Anything suspicious is sent straight to Tsunade, and I know from experience, she will not be pleased."

There was a general chorus of "iiwww…" as this registered, the image of ones form tutor drooling over porn sites was not exactly something they wanted to think about.

"Ok, class," he continued as they found their seats. "As you may know, this week is inter-schools friendship week and as part of this, some of you will become email partners or pen pals with a group of students from a different school for the term. I will read the list in a moment. This thing is entirely anonymous, for safety reasons. You may not give out your name, the name of your school, address, or other personal details or information about your school. You can write to them as often as you like in your free time and in PSE lessons."

The IT suite was immediately filled with whispered conversation at the prospect.

"Ok, those who have email partners are;" he looked at the list, "Ino, Hinata, Lee, Neji, Kiba, Naruto, Kankurou and Gaara. Ok, you can start now; the instructions for the email site are over in that tray. If I didn't read your name out then just do some homework or something."

Tsunade had of course told him her plan, and as much as he respected her, he doubted it would work. She didn't even know if they had been partnered with Akatsuki High yet.


	23. Capture

**Chapter 23**

**Capture**

Most people stop playing tag or other such games almost as soon as they reach high school. Deidara's side of the class were not most people.

Because if you aren't going to be popular, you might as well have fun. Even if that involves sprinting up and down the school's almost deserted staircases, and hiding in invariably prickly and overgrown bushes.

"Capture" was a game that was played in two teams, a catching team and a hiding team. Basically, the catching team started with one person, who then had to capture and recruit the hiding team until there was only one hider left and the rest were all chasing him.

As always, Tobi was first to be 'it' with Deidara, Hidan and Kisame on the hiding team, and so, while the rest of the Akatsuki gang were eating lunch in the dining hall, Deidara was desperately punching in the door code to get to the staircase.

"Come _on_, he's going to get us!"

"Damn! Stupid door un."

"Hurry the fuck up! He's coming!"

"I'm trying..."

The door finally swung open and the three flung themselves through it, turning right to hurtle down the narrow staircase and out a side door as Tobi appeared behind them.

Deidara's hair flew in the wind as he leaped over a wall and onto the path that lead to the dining hall. The others followed behind him and they sprinted, darting through the blue door. They stopped abruptly upon entering the canteen, trying, and failing, to look inconspicuous. They made their way to the far corner, and snuck behind the grand piano, crouching down just as Tobi entered the room.

"Oww!" Hidan hissed, "Shit, Kisame, you're on my leg."

"Sorry, I can't see what's going on, if I just move over here…"

"Fuck! Get off!"

"I think he's going over there, un…"

"Over whe- Shit Kisame! Stop doing that!"

"Over to the other corner, un… Kisame! Un!"

"Sorry… I can't see…"

"Where the fuck is he now?"

"Um, he's coming our way; I think he must have seen us yeah…"

"Oh shit… should we run?"

"Yeah… Oh, No un! He's just seen Sasori's table, its right in front of us…"

"Is Itachi there?"

"Yeah… and Kakuzu, un."

"Did they see us come in here?"

"They must have done un…"

"Fuck, we must have looked like such idiots…"

"Shhh! Tobi's saying something yeah…"

On the other side of the piano, the boys looked up as Tobi approached their table.

"Hi guys! Have you seen Deidara anywhere or Hidan…?"

"They're behind the piano…" Itachi said, sounding bored, "I'm surprised you couldn't hear them… Hidan was never good at being quiet…"

"Bastard!", came the yell from behind the piano, and the three hiders made a dash for the door again, Tobi in close pursuit.

"It's not like you to ruin their fun Itachi…" Kakuzu commented, picking up his sandwich again.

"Hidan deserved it, his voice was annoying me…" He still sounded bored.

Sasori snorted, "It sounded like Kisame was molesting him."

Itachi's scowl intensified.

"This is about earlier isn't it?" Kakuzu said, "The speedword competition thing."

Sasori nearly chocked on his sandwich. "Itachi, you're _jealous_…"

"hn."

With that, Itachi stalked out of the dining hall, leaving his half finished lunch on the table.

"Oh my god it's _true_…" Sasori said, staring after him.

"You have no idea how gay that sounded; you've been hanging around with Deidara too much."

"He's not gay!"

"He looks gay…"

"Do you think we went too far with that? You know he takes everything seriously…"

"Well that's his problem then, if he can't take a joke… do you think one of the year sevens would buy his sandwich?"

"There's only about two year sevens left in this school, they have to double up with the year eight class… The chances of finding one stupid enough to buy that are pretty low."

"We could try though…"


	24. Clean

**Chapter 24**

**Clean**

In the centre of Konoha, there stands a modern looking office block; its walls are made predominantly of shiny, tinted glass and the sign over the entrance reads 'The Boys' Boarding School Trust' in large shiny purple letters.

Inside, the corridors are equally shiny; shiny floors, with white, walls, and shiny silver ceiling lights.

It was along one such corridor that a smartly dressed young man was walking, heading towards the office which belonged to his boss, Orochimaru. He stopped once he reached the correct door, and pushed his glasses up. The glasses were large, round, and equally shiny, covered partly by his grey hair, but he was younger than the average personal secretary.

Looking up at the door, he knocked twice.

"Enter…"

He opened the door, and stepped into the office.

"Ah, Kabuto… What is it? Do sit down…" The older man walked over to the couch and sat down, motioning for the silver haired man to sit beside him. Kabuto complied awkwardly.

"Sir… we... er… have a problem…"

"I know… we simply can't keep reducing the funds. We don't have enough to support those schools which aren't earning enough. That is what you came to tell me, am I correct?" He leant in, so that his face was a little too close for comfort, his hand rested on his assistant's knee.

"As always sir." The secretary replied uncomfortably, glad he didn't have to be the first to relay the bad news.

"So, we shall have to close one of them down… but which one…?" His face was closer now, and Kabuto was leaning as far away as was possible, without seeming impolite.

"If I might say sir, it was suggested that an inspection should be made of our… less successful schools, and a decision made based on the potential for improvement."

"Hmm… that was just what I was thinking…" Orochimaru said, standing up again. "_Thank you_ Kabuto. You may leave…"

The silver haired boy stood up and backed out of the room hurriedly, bowing slightly before closing the door.

Once outside he breathed deeply, leaning against the clean, white wall. Just one more month, he told himself. One more month of this and he would be able to go to medical school.

The job was well paid, exceedingly so, If he could just last one more month of his boss' whims, he would have saved enough.

Just one more month and he could leave.

With that thought in mind, he set off again along the shiny white corridor, towards his office. Ignoring the pitying looks of his fellow staff.

Everyone knew that Orochimaru only ever hired boys to work for him. Young, pretty looking, boys.


	25. Uniform

**Chapter 25**

**Uniforms**

"We're a _boy's_ school! Why the fuck do we need dance lessons?"

"Hidan just shut up and get changed; I'm ready to leave."

Hidan picked up his PE kit and stormed off into the bathroom.

At Akatsuki high, all uniform had to be bought from the uniform shop, including PE kit. For dance, everyone had to wear the shapeless and invariably oversized black t-shirt along with tight lycra cycling shorts. Needless to say, Hidan was not impressed.

Eventually, Hidan emerged, looking rather embarrassed. How come Kakuzu could look good in anything and not him?

"Are you ready?" The masked boy asked.

"Yeah…" Hidan tugged at the too long shirt. "I really couldn't be a girl…"

"_What?_" Kakuzu spun round.

"My legs… they look really fucking big in this…"

"_Huh?_" Kakuzu asked, wondering if he could be serious. Hidan's legs were in no way fat.

"I can't go out like this…"

"Hidan, were only going to the sports hall. You look fine." How could he make Hidan hurry up without sounding gay?

"But… Kuzu… I can't_, seriously_." The Jashinist looked almost scared. "Even Deidara will laugh at me."

"Hidan, we all look stupid, just come on, we're going to be late."

"No. I'm not coming like this."

"Sorry Hidan, we have to go." With that, he walked out of the door.

"Wait!"

Hidan ran after him, after all he didn't really have a choice. In a school with under a hundred pupils, it is pretty much impossible to skip lessons without being noticed.

By the time they had reached the sports hall, the rest of the class had already arrived. They sat on the floor as Mrs. Hind took the register.

She was one of those over enthusiastic teachers that really believe that their lesson is more important than any other.

This lesson, they all had to practice walking 'elegantly' as she called it, which basically involved walking so that the ball of each foot touched the ground before the heel, and they had to put one foot directly in front of the other, as if on a tightrope.

Needless to say, this looked completely ridiculous, but she continued urging them to put more 'feeling' into it.

"That's it! Use your _soul_ to find the movements! _Feeling_, boys, _Feeling_! _Glide_ across the floor! _Glide_!"

As the lesson progressed, they struggled not to burst into fits of laughter whenever she started speaking.

"_That's_ it Tobi! You are all doing so well! Just a little more _passion _please! Let the _music_ move you. There Tobi, One foot in front of the other. _Ball_ first not heel!"

Deidara bit his knuckles as Tobi managed to trip himself up, landing flat on his face.

"Owww…" He got up again, and straightened his mask, before continuing across the sports hall, looking even more stupid than normal.

"Well done Tobi, It seems you are really _feeling_ the music."

By the time the lesson had finished, Tobi was still the only one able to "Feel the music", and Mrs. Hind told them all that she was thoroughly disappointed in their lack of progress.

Hidan and Deidara were both whining about the uniforms, but Sasori was rather glad that the t-shirts were so long. The image of Deidara's hips swaying from side to side had done nothing to improve the tightness of his cycling shorts.


	26. Clouds

**Chapter 26**

**Clouds**

"Shikamaru! You're late!" Ino yelled as soon as he entered the form room.

"Sorry… I had to come all the way from maths…" he said, heading towards his locker.

"And you haven't even packed your books yet… Do you have no consideration for your friends? _Every_ day I have to wait for you, when I could have set off quarter of an hour ago."

"It's not my fault…"

"Yes it is. You should have packed at lunch. When will you learn to be more organized?"

Shikamaru gave up trying to find the right books; it was hard to concentrate with his best friend ranting next to him, and he probably wouldn't have done the work anyway.

"Ok, I'm ready."

"See, you didn't even need to go to your locker, now you're just wasting my time for no reason."

She uncrossed her legs before sliding gracefully off the desk, flicking her fringe out of her eyes and sauntering out of the door, leaving Shikamaru to follow.

They didn't speak until they reached the main road, where they stopped at the traffic lights.

"So," She turned towards him. "Are you going to ask her?"

"Who?" He had expected this was going to happen.

"The blonde girl."

"Temari? Ask her what?"

"Aww… you know her name, how cute."

He scowled, as the green man flashed on. "Yes I do. She spent the whole of break trying to make me buy her and her brothers chocolate. She said I _owed _her."

"Awww… how sweet."

"It wasn't _sweet_. She's two years older than me, and she was actually _scary_."

"Aww… Shikamaru, being intimidated by a girl. That's a first."

"Does everything you say have to start with 'awww'?"

"Yes. Awwwwww…. But you should ask her."

"Ask her what?"

"To go to the end of year dance!"

"No. That is NOT happening. I'm not even going. Too troublesome."

"Yes you are. I'm dragging you there and you _will_ have a partner."

"No. I'm not going. Definitely not with her."

"You'll have to choose someone else then."

"No I won't, because I'm not going."

"You can't just not go! It's going to be amazing! Apparently there's something big happening this year, but Tsunade hasn't confirmed it yet. You had better ask her soon, because a girl like that is going to get asked out like, almost immediately."

"She didn't look_ that_ special."

"Yes she did. And she would look so cute with you. You have matching hair and everything!"

"Matching hair? Is _that_ the best reason you can come up with. You want me to ask her out because we have _matching hair_?"

"That and because you like her."

"I do not. Girls are just a waste of time."

"_Thanks_…Glad to know I'm valued."

"I just mean I don't like her. Well not like _that…_"

"Oh so you do like her?"

"I think she would be good _as a friend_."

"You're in denial."

"No I'm not."

"Aww… you're so cute when you're embarrassed."

"Will you stop with the 'Awww'-ing; I'm not embarrassed."

"Yes you are."

"I'm not even answering that."

They continued walking in silence, Shikamaru looking up at the sky, while Ino thought through the day's events. She was looking forward to finding out what her email partner was like.

"I hope I got a guy…" She said out loud, forgetting that Shikamaru had no idea what he was talking about.

"You what?"

"I mean for the email thing. I hope I got a fit guy."

"Ino is that all you think about?"

"It's better than clouds." She replied indignantly.

"What's wrong with clouds?"

"Well, you can't date them can you?"

"Who says I want to date anyone?"

"…"

"I fell asleep! I could have ended up on anyone's lap. I just _happened_ to be next to her."

"Ok… I don't believe you but still… _I _want a boyfriend."

"Humph. Just don't go after Sasuke again, I can't tell you why, but it's never going to work."

"What do you mean '_I can't tell you wh_y', you mean you _know_ why he won't go out with me?"

"I can't believe you _don't._ It's so obvious."

"Tell me then."

"No; I can't. Just because I know everything doesn't make it right to go spreading everyone else's secrets. All I can say is pick somebody else. There are plenty of more deserving guys out there."

"I guess I'll have to trust you, but I still can't believe you won't tell me. You're my _best friend_."

"I just can't; it wouldn't be fair. You'll find out pretty soon anyway. Just keep single for now. I know somebody who has been wanting to ask you, but I don't know if he's your type. He does however have an amazing personality and he really loves you, which is more than I can say for most of your boyfriends."

"Hmm… Boys are still better than clouds."

"I really don't see how that's relevant."


	27. Immature

**A/N **In case you wan't to know, the song Hidan is humming is the chorus of 'Bleach' by easyworld- (obviously i don't own it...) The link is here but you'll have to delete the spaces because you can't post links here incase people start putting spam everywhere...

www . youtube . com / watch?v=4fehPHcW5fE

If that gets removed then just search "Easyworld- bleach" into youtube.

or even better buy the cd if it still exists. I believe the band broke up a while back, and my friend said that you can't get it on i-tunes, although i haven't tryed because i don't have an i-pod.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 27**

**Immature**

Hidan sat on his bed, mindlessly trailing the chain of his pendant between his fingers; letting the cool silver trickle into the palm of his hand, before lifting it up again and tapping the symbol idly. Without realizing, he began to hum. The song had been stuck in his head all day and the lyrics played in his mind whilst he continued to tap the pendant.

Hmm hmm hmmm hmm hmmm hmmmmmm tap-tap-

Hmm hmm hmmm-mm hmmm hmmmmmm tap-tap-

Hmm hmm hmmm hmm hmmm hmmmmmm tap-tap-

Hmm hmm hmmm hmm hmmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tap-tap-tap-

Hmm hmm hmmm… "

"Hidan will you please shut up." Kakuzu finally snapped from the other side of the room. "I'm trying to work. You should be doing yours too…"

"I can't do homework."

"Why not?" Kakuzu didn't look up, trying to do the geography work whilst talking to Hidan.

"Because it's too fucking boring."

"At least do _something_; I can't concentrate with you fidgeting."

"I'm not doing anything wrong, I have the right to sit on my own bed don't I?"

"Hidan, will you just do something, it's hard to think with you watching my every move."

"But I'm bored."

"Then do your homework."

"Like that'll fucking help"

"Can't you pray or something?"

"No."

"Why is it that you only ever pray when it is completely inconvenient for you to do so, and when it would actually be useful, you can't?"

"What do you mean '_actually useful'_? Prayer is only for the purpose of pleasing Jashin, I can't just do it because I have nothing better to do. It has to come from the soul. As for it being inconvenient, sacrifices like that must be made in order to show true devotion. Otherwise, prayer would be completely fucking pointless, dickhead."

"Hidan, will you just do _something_… I need to do this work, unlike you I plan to actually pass my GCSEs, so I can actually get a decent job and not end up working in a supermarket."

"Then go to one of the other classrooms and stop pestering me."

"Not unless you promise to actually do something. I'm serious; you need to actually work sometime, or you'll end up with no job and no money."

"No I won't; I'm going to join the army."

"_What_?" The stitched man spun round. Kakuzu wasn't sure why he had yelled that so loudly, but the idea of Hidan being shot at in some trench hundreds of miles away from him made his stomach clench. The kid in front of him seemed way too young to hold a gun, let alone use it.

"What's wrong with the army? I think it'd be fucking cool seriously. I'd get to kill people, you know… "He aimed an imaginary gun at Kakuzu's head, and fired.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Kaboooom!"

No, Hidan was definitely not mature enough to join.

"Hidan, it isn't a video game. It's real. You _actually_ kill people, and if you're shot, you won't get a second life."

Hidan pouted, "Like you'd care…" he muttered, too quietly for his dorm mate to hear him.

"And if you do decide to join up, you'll have to start eating properly again." Kakuzu turned back to his homework, not wanting to appear too worried.

"I do fucking eat properly. I just eat lunch at break, with Deidara and Kisame…and Tobi. Just 'cos I don't eat with you doesn't mean I don't eat at all."

"You always skip breakfast."

"So does everyone. There isn't enough fucking time."

"And you don't always eat dinner."

"Yes I do! I have a sandwich from the tuck shop so I can eat at the park, after running."

"That doesn't count as dinner. You have to eat properly Hidan."

"It does! It's better than the shit they feed you at the dining hall. What does it matter to you anyway? I thought you were trying to do homework."

"Thanks to you I got distracted."

"Well go find an empty classroom then. There are plenty of them in this school."

"Fine then, I will." He flipped his folder closed and shoved it into his bag before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Hidan went back to tapping the pendant.

Without Kakuzu there, he was certainly not going to do any work. He would be in trouble tomorrow, but who cared? Homework was boring so why bother; he didn't mind what his teachers thought of him, he wasn't a stuck up little snob like Itachi.

Nor did he want to be; what was the point of being popular when you could have fun instead? He wasn't Jealous at all.

Fuck no. He was happy where he was thank you.

Perfectly happy.

If only he could convince _himself_ that.

If only Kakuzu didn't believe he was a complete idiot.


	28. Good

**Chapter 28**

**Good **

"Tobi! How many times must I tell you? Turn the light off when you leave a room."

"Sorry Zetsu, I forgot again." He spun round and obediently flicked the switch.

"That's better. If only more people did that, global warming wouldn't happen so quickly."

"Global-warming is bad isn't it? Tobi will be a good boy and reduce his carbon foot print, isn't that right Zetsu?"

"Yes it is Tobi. _Or the penguins will die…_"

"Tobi's a good boy; Tobi won't let the penguins die."

"That's…good…" Zetsu went back to reading his book.

"What book is that Zetsu?" The schizophrenic tilted the book so that Tobi could read the cover. It was a relatively old copy of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'.

"Oh, Tobi has that book too!" He said excitedly, rushing to retrieve it from his drawer in the bedside table.

"What? You've read it? _Idiot, of coarse he didn't, Tobi wouldn't read that; he still reads Harry Potter_. "

"Madara told Tobi to get it for him. Tobi didn't read it, it looked boring."

"Oh, that makes sense I suppose. _I told you so_."

"How far has Madara got? I haven't seen him reading it…"

"He hasn't, Tobi only got it for him today, and Tobi hasn't taken his mask off since... Tobi doesn't want Madara to come out; Tobi wants to be a good boy…" Although his expressions were hidden behind the mask, his voice sounded scared.

"Shh, Tobi, don't worry. You are a good boy." For once his dark side stayed quiet.

"What Madara did, It wasn't his fault, lots of people would have done the same thing in his situation. He didn't have much choice; his parent's, they weren't very good people" He stopped suddenly as Tobi suddenly tore his mask off.

"How _dare_ you! How _dare_ you say something like that about my _parents_! They were _Uchiha_s; it was a family business, they had _no choice_- they were born into it!"

Zetsu shivered, looking up at Madara, he hadn't meant to say that to him, but it was easy to forget that Tobi and Madara were the same person, they were such complete opposites. The dark haired boy stood at the end of his bed, trembling and glaring at him. Zetsu stayed perfectly still, any small movement could push the other over the edge, and he didn't want to start a fight.

The door knob rattled and Madara spun round and ran to the bathroom, just in time as the door to their room swung open and Deidara rushed into the room, closely followed by Hidan and Kisame.

"What's going on un? Where's Tobi? We thought we heard shouting, yeah, so we came here to see what was happening un?"

"Tobi's in the bathroom."

"But was that him shouting? I didn't think he could even get angry. It sounded fucking _scary_…"

Zetsu wasn't sure what to say, Madara had always kept quiet before, so that Tobi could keep up the good boy act. Conveniently, at that moment there came a loud crash from the bathroom, followed by a yelp, and everyone's attention was turned towards the bathroom door.

"Sorry Zetsu! Tobi thinks he might have broken the toilet. Tobi's foot hurts."

Zetsu put his book down and rushed to the bathroom.

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah, Tobi didn't lock the door, because it might not open again."

The door was indeed unlocked and Zetsu opened it to reveal Tobi, standing in the middle of the small room, having managed to drop the lid of the toilet cistern on his foot. Luckily he had shoes on, but the ceramic lid had smashed into hundreds of pieces across the dirty white linoleum.

"Hi Deidara! You came to visit Tobi!"

"Um, Tobi? How did you manage to do that un?"

"What?" Tobi looked around, having momentarily forgotten the mess he had caused. "Oh… _that_… Tobi didn't mean to! It was an accident, Tobi wanted to see what the inside of the big white water-toilet thing looked like and the lid just slipped…"

"_Idiot._"

"Tobi, was that you yelling earlier?" Hidan asked, getting back to the reason they had all come to Tobi's room.

"Oh that? Yeah that was Tobi! Tobi's a good boy, so Tobi wanted to show Zetsu what Hidan said to me earlier, only Mr. Long said in English that when we tell stories or _anecdotes_ we have to use different voices and expressions, so we get better marks."

All eyes turned to Hidan.

"What did you say to him, un?"

"Nothing; it wasn't my fault; he borrowed my fine-liners and when he gave them back the tips were all blunt. _All_ of them. How the hell did he fucking manage to do that by accident?"

"There was no need to be mean to him though un, he may be annoying but Tobi didn't mean to, I'm sure yeah."

"Tobi's a good boy, he said _sorry_!" Tobi cut in.

"Calm down, man" Kisame said, "I don't think he would have broken them on purpose. He just presses down really hard when he writes."

"I know you're sorry Tobi, but I think it would be better if you didn't borrow Hidan's pens in the future."

"Yes Zetsu, Tobi won't."

"I'm not letting him near any of my shit ever again. Seriously."

"And Tobi,"

"Yes Zetsu?"

"Please don't copy any of the words Hidan says again either, especially not in English lessons."

"Ok, Zetsu."

"_Fine, now can all of you piss off. Nothing interesting is happening, so you can mind your own business._ Sorry, it's kind of late, he has a point."

As soon as the others had left, Tobi removed his mask again.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted like that but they really weren't bad people. They tried their hardest not to let me know about their business, so that I could live normally. They tried so hard… I couldn't betray them…"

"I know, I shouldn't have said that, it's just so difficult to explain things to Tobi. What I meant was… it isn't your fault Madara. You were faced with a decision that no kid should have to make. Most people would have made the same choice you did, they were your family and, like you said, you couldn't betray them."

"But I should have done… Oh well, I don't feel like moaning about shit tonight. I'm going to get ready for bed. Sorry about the mess, Tobi didn't want you to have to come up with an excuse. You can tidy it up in the morning, I can't be arsed now."

"Ok, but it's my turn in the bathroom first tonight."

By the time Zetsu was done in the bathroom, Madara had already changed into his night clothes. Zetsu's dark side couldn't help laughing.

"Shut up. It's not my fault. Why did Tobi have to choose such ridiculous pajamas?" Madara scowled. "They're bright orange for god's sake. And what's with the flowers, I swear they're not even meant for guys…"

"They were in the boy's section. Tobi loved them, _the idiot_ , you really ought to go shopping without your mask on sometime. Shopping with Tobi is embarrassing."

"Not as embarrassing as having to wear what he buys."

"At least nobody but me can see you."

"True, anyway it's my turn in the bathroom now."

Zetsu was already in bed when Madara returned.

"_Turn off the light in the bathroom_. You can't leave it on during the night! That's a complete waste of…" He stopped as Madara cut in.

"Will you shut up about the fucking environment."

"Ok, I'll do it then. _Bastard._"


	29. Rain

**Chapter 29**

**Rain**

Tuesday mornings were when assemblies were held at Akatsuki high, and this was the first assembly of term. Pein wasn't nervous though, as head teacher, he had delivered his fair share of assemblies and besides, he had more pressing things to worry about, such as the fact that Akatsuki high was going to close down pretty soon if he couldn't make a good impression on whoever the boys boarding school trust was sending to inspect them. Rumor had it that Orochimaru himself was coming.

In any case, the boys had better be on their best behavior. A repeat of the upside down classroom incident would mean the end of his job.

Pein scanned the notes in his hand, checking his agenda, before stepping up to the podium and looking out at his audience.

The hall was only partly full, but he knew that everyone was there. Bitterly, he could recall a time when Assemblies had to be done to each year group separately because there were far too many people to all fit into the hall at once. Nowadays, each year consisted of from four to eight boys, with year eights and sevens sharing lessons because there were so few of them.

Some years had completely ceased to exist.

But hew still tried.

"Good morning boys," he began, eyes scanning the rows, checking for faults in the uniforms.

"Good morning Mr. Pein...", they droned back, half asleep and more interested in the sound of rain pattering against the windows than in what he had to say.

Pein too was aware of what a bleak day it was outside, but good morning was the way all assemblies begun, no-matter how untrue the phrase may be.

"I hope that you all enjoyed your half term break, and that you are all feeling refreshed and ready to start a new term of hard work."

Yet again he knew that was not the case, but nobody was listening to him by now anyway. Even the teachers had zoned out, letting his words wash over them.

After the usual ten minutes of inspirational rambling on the subjects of hard work and success, it was time for the notices. A few heads looked up at him again when they realized that his speech was over, but most of the boys didn't notice. They would be out of it until the bell rang, but hopefully the few attentive ones would relay anything important he had to say.

"Ok, I have an announcement to make. One class has been chosen to participate in an emailing scheme, as part of the inter schools friendship week celebrations. You will be told who you are and what to do during your next lesson and you probably will already have messages waiting for you when you log on. ", he glanced down at his notes, "Unfortunately, this term, the under 16s hockey club has had to be disbanded due to a lack of participants."

There were a couple of half hearted groans from the year eights, but nobody looked particularly disappointed.

"I think that's all, does anyone have any notices?" Pein glanced around the room, eyes settling on Mrs. Hinds, who stood up and coughed politely.

"There will be a dance club in the sports hall this lunch. I was thoroughly _disappointed_ that nobody attended last term, I _do_ hope that some of you will use this opportunity; there are not many boys with the privilege of being able to learn dance."

Pein was sure there weren't, but dance lessons with Mrs. Hind hardly counted as dance lessons, and not even the year sevens were weird enough to sign up.

"Than you Mrs. Hind, is there anyone else with notices?"

The answer was no, and as if on cue, the bell rang, successfully awakening the boys, before they were dismissed, row by row, from the assembly hall. As they left, Pein ignores the loud whispers of "Finally" and "I thought I was going to _die_ of boredom in there." The noise in the hall died down as he watched them leave before picking up his notes and dropping them in the recycling bin as he made his way out through the grand double doors that lead to his office.

Pein's office was large, with a high ceiling and much of the original furniture from before the house had become a school. One wall was lined with portraits of the previous head masters, each with the same distinctive orange hair. The school had been run by his family since it had begun and Pein had spent his entire life here. He had always known that one day his portrait would hang on that wall, as part of that line of ancestors. Now though, it seemed that he would be the last.

There was no way that the school could support it's self; without the trust's funding they would be forced to close.

Sitting back in an old, green, leather armchair, he could remember looking up at those photos when he was younger and thinking how much better he would be than his father.

He had, as a child, planned to make the school more popular than it had ever been, and more interesting too. It didn't matter that his child-hood dreams of holding parties for all the students every week, coupled with having no lessons, ever, and endless supplies of ice-cream for teachers and pupils alike, would never have been entirely practical. He still felt that he had failed to do the best he could. His student's were bored, the school was failing, and he was constantly being outshined by Tsunade.

And soon there would be no school at all.


	30. Girls

**Chapter 30**

**Girls**

It was lunchtime when the Akatsuki boys finally went to check their e-mails. The ICT suite was in one of the attic rooms. It was quite large, but the ceiling was sloped, making it seem smaller than it actually was. The lack of windows would also have contributed to the confined feeling, but the room was painted a bright, if slightly grubby, white to lessen the effect.

The elderly computer tables lined the walls, with bundles of wires everywhere, but somehow never connected to the right plug.

The computers were large grey machines, which whirred so loudly they could be heard from the classrooms below. The Boys' Boarding School Trust was slightly erratic about what it allocated funds for. While almost every classroom had an electric whiteboard, and the teachers were all provided with their own shiny new laptops, the student computers were at least seven years old, and were exasperatingly slow and unpredictable. It took the first twenty minutes of their lunchtime just to log on, even with Sasori's help and Itachi's general genius-ness.

Not even the infamous Uchiha glare could scare those computers into working; they were pretty malicious themselves with their snarling whirring noises and the ability to make hours of typed work disappear at random.

The fact that they were wasting valuable lunch break did not escape the boys' attention, but they were under very strict instructions from Pein to at least write _something_ to their pen-pals, so they didn't really have much choice.

Deidara was sitting at one in one corner, with the computer facing slightly away from Hidan who sat next to him; he didn't like other people reading over his shoulder. When he had eventually reached the correct site, he found that there was indeed a message waiting for him. Opening the window, he waited for it to load and began to read.

**Dear guy (or girl…) whose name I don't know,**

**Hi! I'm not allowed to tell you my name, but you can call me 'I' or something because that's the first letter. Also we're not allowed to tell each other what gender we are, but to avoid any confusion, I will say that I'm currently wearing a skirt as part of our school uniform and that my hair is waist-length and white-blonde with a long side fringe (It's not actually dyed- I'm just naturally gorgeous). You can hopefully work it out from that. **

Deidara tried to ignore the fact that his hair was also long, and blonde with a side fringe and that therefore by her standards he looked like a girl. At-least he wasn't wearing a skirt, although that was more due to what his friends would say than the fact that he was averse to wearing them.

**More about me; I like shopping (with my friend S), and I want to be a designer when I am older- I'm taking art and graphics as my options (I'm not very good though...) My favorite food is chocolate, and my favorite program is the X-Factor (even though some of the acts are kind of embarrassing…). **

**Continuing the favorites list; **

**my favorite**** colour**** is purple, **

**my favorite sport is football (I may be bimbo but I am on the girls team…) **

**my favorite music artist is Lily Allen,**

**my favorite French word is 'Parapluie' (irrelevant I know but we just learned it today, It means umbrella.)**

**And my favorite shops are (deep breath…); Top-shop, New look, H&M, Blue Banana, Jane Norman, and I also like the vintage clothing shop on the way into town (Not that u know where I live…) Its too expensive for me to afford anything though- I might be able to persuade my dad to buy me a dress from there for my birthday though because the end of term prom is coming up and they have some really gorgeous ones that would be just perfect! And I have the perfect shoes to match too, it's like destiny! (a boy in my form uses that word way too much, I swear it's catching now…)**

**Hehe****, If you are a boy, you're probably really bored by now… Sorry…**

Hey some boy's liked shopping too didn't they? That was just sexist… She had good taste in shops though by his standards, it was a pity he couldn't really admit to occasionally shopping at girl's stores. In-fact about half his clothes came from girls sections, but more feminine looks for men _were_ in fashion at the moment, and he could easily pass for a girl if he needed to try stuff on.

Although naturally he had a relatively deep voice, speech and drama lessons were useful for all kinds of things and Deidara had learned that to make your voice realistically feminine, the trick was not to speak in a higher pitch, but just softer than normal.

This was of-coarse especially helpful for school plays, prank phone calls, and also, in Deidara's case, for shopping. As-long as he cut the labels out before he got back to school.

**Oh yeah- my birthday is next week… YAY! I'm so excited! I'm having a shared party with my best friend S, at the weekend- her birthday was yesterday.**

**It's going to be**_** Immense**_**! We can't have a proper house party, because my dad was all 'No! You will break everything' ect. But we're having a sleepover thing with her and some other people from school. **

Not fair, Deidara's birthday wasn't until March…

**Oh and also, I'm currently single, but I have had a crush on this boy since the beginning of year seven, and I think he fancies my best friend. In other words if you are some loner stalker dude then no I won't date u… I might do if you're fit though… (Joking- I'm not that shallow really…honest…)**

Deidara had been more interested in the clothes she bought than whether she was dating anybody. If only he could tell her about his own relationship problems; he trusted Hidan with knowing who he fancied, but the Jashinist really didn't do sympathy very well.

It would certainly be a lot more convenient if he had been a girl, then he wouldn't have to worry about talking about fashion and dresses, whilst trying not to sound that effeminate.

**I bet u are a girl now… oh well- please reply.**

**From I **

**(Ok, that sounds weird, I mean I as in my initial, I'm not just talking really spazzily…)**

**Pps****. (hold on, I haven't done 'ps.' yet… nvm…) Please make up a nic name or something that I can call you… "Guy who I don't know yet" doesn't quite sound right…**

**Ppps. Sorry for the rambling-ness of this e-mail, I'm not this strange in real life… kind of…**

**BYEEEE (for real now- no more pppppppps's…)**

Deidara finished reading, when a thought struck him. Whoever he was writing to wasn't even supposed to know what gender he was, he didn't even have to lie, a description of his hair, along with a few amendments to the 'Favorite shops' list, and a couple of typically more feminine phrases, could easily persuade her that he was an actual girl. And if he let anything slip it wouldn't really matter; he would never meet her anyway.

And so he began to type, checking over his shoulder occasionally to make sure nobody was looking too closely at what he was writing.

**Dear I,**

**Happy Birthday for whatever day your birthday is on and I hope that you get the dress that you wanted. We don't have a prom here, because the school is so small, but the school down the road does, and we can see their fireworks from our roof- I love fire works…BANG! They're so pretty…**

**OMG! Not wanting to sound like some crazy stalker, but from what you wrote, we seem to have like, soooo much in common…**

He wondered whether both like and OMG in the same sentence a bit over the top, but decided that it sounded OK and sufficiently girly, not that he actually knew any girls. The extra 'O's would probably help too.

**To start with, I also have waist-length blonde hair with a long side fringe, that covers my eye, and also I like most of the same shops as you, not Jane Norman though- it's just not my kind of thing… And you're right, vintage shops rock! There's a really awesome one around the corner from my school, but yeah, it's really expensive but it has nice skirts and jewelry, although though I'm not really into dresses…**

He glanced around, checking that nobody could read the message. He noticed that Hidan was being unusually quiet, and saw that the Jashinist was typing away intently to whomever his partner was. Deidara couldn't help but be surprised; Hidan rarely did what he was supposed to do in lessons, never mind things like this that took up entire lunchtimes. Tugging his eyes away from the unusual site of Hidan being quiet, he returned his attention to his email.

**Have you ever been to Pulp?- It's a bit like Blue Banana, but it sells slightly different stuff. I really want one of the monster shoulder bags from there to use for school, but everything has to be plain black here- which sucks.**

**I would also love to be a designer- but my dream job would be to be an artist. Personally, I believe that fashion is about expressing the person that wears the clothes, and that it is beautiful because it is always changing and doesn't fade with time. **

**Oh and I have a kind of speech impediment kind of thing that means I say 'un' or 'yeah' at the end of everything. I don't do it if I try not to, or when I'm acting, but if I'm just talking to someone I do it all the time. It doesn't bother me though; it's not nearly as irritating as it sounds.**

**My favorites list;**

**My favorite food is candy hearts (You know the ones with little messages on them),**

**My Favorite Artist is Banksy- (Yes, street art is art- I can't see why people can't accept new art forms. He's AWSOME…)**

**And my favorite program is Doctor Who (Yes I am that sad… My friend watches Torchwood though which is worse…)**

**my favorite**** colour**** is YELLOW! (it's a happy colour…), **

**I hate all sports- just don't go there.**

**my favorite band is Easyworld (Yeah you won't have heard of them, but my best friend listens to them **_**way **_**too much…They're still good though…)**

**I hate French even more than I hate PE**

**But still, I LOVE shopping. If I could, I would go every week, but my friends hate coming with me because I'm too perfectionist-ish apparently. I have to admit it can take me a week to find the right T-Shirt to buy…**

This was true, to the point that Hidan refused to go into town with him, unless he promised not to look for clothes. It didn't help that Hidan refused to go anywhere near girl's shops with him, he was far more self conscious than the blonde and didn't look nearly so feminine; people sometimes assumed Dei was his girlfriend.

**Still, it's fun to me anyway… **

**Anyway, I also have had a crush on somebody in my class for **_**ages**_**, he is kind of quiet, but he's one of the snobby popular kids and I'm not. He's still one of my closest friends though because he is my dorm-mate, and he's really nice once you get to know him. My best friend says I only like him because he's fit (which he really **_**is- **_**pale skin, dark red hair, he's slightly shorter than me, but he has the kind of eye's that make you want to do **_**anything**_** for him- cliché I know…) but he's also an amazing person- and an artist too, even though he has completely different ideas on what art is.**

Reading through that paragraph, Deidara realized he hadn't even had to try to sound girly and infatuated. Damn, he was getting worse and worse…

**So in other words- he's perfect in every way, and I wish he would like me like that- but that's never going to happen… Oh well- I have amazing friends even if they refuse to shop with me XP**

Girls used smiley faces in messages didn't they?

**So, yeah that's all about me… and u can make up a nic-name, I'm not feeling very creative right now lol…**

'Lol' sounded girly didn't it? Did guy's use 'lol' too? Oh well, he wasn't deleting it either way…

**So yeah… BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!**

That was definitely not very masculine… Re-reading the message before pressing 'send', Deidara's pride at successfully sounding like a girl throughout the e-mail was subdued slightly by the fact that he hadn't had to try very hard to do so.


	31. Sun

Chapter 31

Sun

The dining hall at Konoha high was a modern building, designed more to show off the school's facilities than to provide a place for students to eat. It was a pentagonal room with walls made predominantly of glass, allowing sunlight into the already bright open space.

The only flaw in its design was the fact that there were only two tills shared between the several hundred pupils. Consequently each person could end up queuing for up to half an hour, and there were always crowds of students outside, waiting to get in.

Naruto and Kiba had no major problems though; they knew pretty much everybody and everyone looked up to them enough to let them push in.

"So", began Kiba, putting his tray down on the table in front of him, "Have you decided what you're going to get Sakura and Ino yet?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, taking his place opposite Kiba.

"For their birthdays?" Naruto's face remained blank.

"You've forgotten haven't you? Their party is this weekend, idiot. Don't worry, I still need to buy them stuff too; we can go together."

"Sure. Thanks for reminding me; I thought it was next week. Hey, we're going swimming aren't we? I wish the sleepover wasn't all girls. It sounds awesome…" He trailed off, gazing mournfully at his bowl of spaghetti, unsuccessfully willing it to become ramen.

"So, are you free after school today?" Kiba asked, trying to distract him from the ramen-withdrawal symptoms. "Hey, we can go to cookie-shake! Iruka will lend you some money for the presents right?"

Akatsuki high didn't start lunch until about half an hour after Konoha high. Normally, Deidara's friends ate at break so that they could do more interesting things at lunch.

Today though, fun stuff wasn't an option. Maths homework was due in next lesson and their teacher was _scary_. At least by Deidara's standards; Hidan could still not be bothered to do his. Any suffering caused by Mrs. Kitchen was earned by him, and suffering for your sins was the ultimate way to show your devotion to Jashin.

Actually he was scared shitless of her too, but there was no way that he could do the whole homework in one lunchtime; he would have to wait until this evening and suffer the consequences.

Deidara wouldn't have been able to do it either if it hadn't been for his dorm-mates offer of assistance. So whilst Hidan was sitting in his room, panicking and cursing Kakuzu to Jashin damned hell for refusing to help him, Deidara and Sasori were sitting on the school playing field, in the shade of a small sycamore tree, attempting to finish Deidara's Maths homework before the bell rang.

"Danna, un…"

"Yeah…"

"What's three times nine yeah…?"

"Oh for God's sake Dei…" He had been asking questions every couple of seconds, and Sasori knew that even Deidara wasn't that stupid.

"_Sorry_, sorry yeah… I'll do it myself un…"

"hmph… are you nearly done? I swear I've answered all the questions for you already…"

"Yeah… nearly, I just need to finish this question… hold on…un…"

With some assistance, Deidara finished the work in half the amount of time that he normally took, and soon they could both lie back on the bank looking up through layers of branches. Sun shone through the leaves like stain glass, tinting their world with a fresh yellow-green glow.

Sasori had always liked the feeling of sunlight against his skin; it warmed him, making him feel more human and alive than he normally did. More like the person he would have been had the events not happened had which lead to him being dumped here at Akatsuki high.

He was not by any means the worst off out of the Akatsuki boys, unlike most of the others, he had one surviving relative. Grandma Chio really did care about him, at least when she could remember his name, but her illness had left her unable to cope with caring for a child, regardless of how mature that child might be.

Being frequently mistaken for his father not long after his parents had been killed in a plane crash, was not something Sasori found pleasant, however being dumped in a children's home was out of the question. Chio may not have been entirely the domineering woman that she used to be, but she insisted that her only grand child should be raised to have manners and airs fit for her family.

A nearby private boarding school seemed an ideal option. Sasori's father had gone to Akatsuki high when the school was in its prime, and Chio had not hesitated to book her grandson a place.

Sasori had not objected, he had learned long ago that arguing with his grandmother was not a good plan, especially in her old age. Chio came from a very affluent background, as had Sasori's Grand father, and she had proudly kept charge of their large country estate for most of her life. Nowadays, most of the work was done by maids and butlers, along with her private nurse who also gave orders to the servants; Chio's health may have declined but her fortune had not.

She still held the authority and dignity of a woman who knows exactly who she is and exactly how much more important she is than you.

This had not made for an ideal childhood, but Sasori knew there were several boys at Akatsuki High with far worse past lives than him. Deidara had been practically disowned by his parents as they realized that he wasn't quite the perfectly behaved young gentleman that they wanted him to be. Then there was Hidan, whose parents died in a fire when he was six, and whose adoptive millionaire mother only looked after him for about a week before handing him over to a long succession of aupairs and nannies. Eventually, she had felt guilty and shipped him off to the nearest boarding school, where she could forget he existed.

Yes, Sasori's life could have been a lot worse, but he wasn't exactly happy with it regardless…

His chain of thoughts was broken as Deidara poked him in the ribs.

"Uh, what?" the red head asked. Deidara hesitated before speaking, and when he did his voice was quieter than normal.

"Er, you know that night, yeah, when we were on the roof un?"

"…Yeah?" Sasori was sure he didn't like where this was going. He wasn't used to handling relationships of any kind; even friends were rarely close enough to care that much about. People weren't eternal in the same way that art could be; they always got ripped away somehow.

"Well, um… you know…un… that…" Deidara paused, unsure how to ask what he had been wondering for the past few days.

"Did we… uhr… was that holding hands or what, un?"

Sasori had guessed something like that was coming, but he wasn't sure how to respond.

"Well, I suppose you could say it was… I mean linking fingers, it would depend…" Skirting around the actual question seemed the best option. He could tell that Deidara was really asking 'do you like me?' but he couldn't answer that without knowing for certain that the blond liked him back.

"…Would depend on what, yeah?" Deidara had turned his head to face him, and Sasori could feel the blue eyes staring at him, trying to read his expression.

"The tree looks nice…"

"Answer the question, yeah."

"Does it matter?"

"…no, un."

"Then why ask?"

"I don't know, yeah…"

There was another awkward silence, as the both realized that they were in danger of being found out. Deidara scolded himself for making such a big deal out of the holding hands thing- it was obviously just friendship related; he should be honored by that instead of always looking for more. Next to him, Sasori concentrated on remaining blank faced, he knew linking fingers was pushing the boundaries of friendship; he couldn't ever slip up like that again.

Deidara sat up, shoving his maths books back into his school bag, trying to cover the silence with the shuffling of textbooks and notepads.

"Oh, Danna, un! We get pocket money today, look!" he said, holding his homework planner up so that Sasori could see the words "SHOPPING DAY!!!" scrawled across today's homework space in sparkly gold gel-pen.

The red head raised an eyebrow.

"I've been saving for ages for this new hoodie, yeah, and now I can finally get it!" Deidara grinned in a way that could have rivaled Rock Lee.

"Don't you have speech and drama after school today?"

"I do un, but we're working on a play at the moment, so Mrs Lamb says she only wants to se Hidan and Itachi, to work on their scene… Oh, _damn_, un. That means Hidan can't meet me in Cookie-Shake…", He paused for a moment, the smile fading rapidly, before an idea struck him.

"Danna, un! _You_ can come with me un! I've never been into town with you before!"

"Nice offer, Dei, but I've heard what you're like with shopping."

Inner Sasori was arguing with him-self. Yes, this was the closest he was ever going to get to dating Deidara, but he knew he couldn't appear too enthusiastic. Apart from anything, mission 'date Deidara' was bordering on impossible and false hope would not be helpful in the long run when Dei would eventually shatter his dreams.

"Oh, but you could at least meet me at Cookie-Shake, yeah."

"What's Cookie shake?"

"You've never heard of Cookie-Shake, un?" Deidara asked, incredulously. Sasori shook his head.

"What the hell Sasori? _How_? It's _the _most amazing place ever un! How can you not have been, yeah? That's it. You have to come with me now, un."

So Sasori really didn't have a choice, or at least that's what he tried to tell himself. He owed Deidara his life; if it made the blonde happy then meeting in town was the least he could do.


	32. Deep Water

**Chapter 32**

**Deep water**

The market square was normally busy, even on weekdays, but by the time Naruto and Kiba reached it, most shoppers had gone home. It was pretty deserted except for the few small groups of miserable looking teenagers gathered around the stone lions at one end of the square. The two boys took little notice of them though, they were always there they didn't recognize anyone.

Passing the fountains, Naruto stopped suddenly, squinting at the 'Danger' sign on the side of the water feature.

"What?" Kiba asked, noticing he was the only one walking. "What is it?"

"Hehe… nothing… just the sign… How the hell is that 'deep water'? it can't be more than a foot deep."

"I dunno, its just health and safety Naruto, can we move? I want to get to Cookie-Shake before they close…"

"Wait, I just want to see how deep the deep bit is… If I can just get onto that wall thing…" Naruto dumped the presents he had bought on the paving slabs before jumping onto the wall and balancing his way through the middle of the fountains, ducking under the jets of water.

"Naruto, you do realize that those fountains change height?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you know the water arches you're going under? They get bigger..."

"And smaller?"

"Yeah…"

Naruto opened his mouth to speak but, as Kiba had predicted, a jet of water shot towards the blonde. Leaping sideways to avoid the spray, Naruto landed right on the edge of the wall before toppling backwards into the shallow water.

A few streets away, Sasori was sitting on one of the sofas in cookie-shake, anxiously awaiting Deidara's arrival. He checked his watch for what was probably the twentieth time that minute, trying not to look awkward despite being practically crushed into the armrest by the loud couple that had sat next to him.

Cookie-shake was small and always rather cramped, it was not really the sort of place people went on their own, and the other customers were all chatting happily in little groups making Sasori feel slightly out of place. That wasn't the only reason Sasori felt nervous; although they were still strictly friends only, the situation did seem kind of like a date. Sasori had promised himself he wouldn't try and be anything more than a friend, but somehow that didn't stop the pre-date nerves.

It didn't help that he'd arrived early and had spent the last half hour checking the time. The girl at the counter was giving him some rather odd looks too; he still hadn't bought anything.

Finally, the door swung open and Deidara bounced in, shopping bags swinging from one arm.

"Danna, un! I'm so sorry I'm late."

"Hi…er…there's not really any space…" Sasori said, indicating to the lack of empty chairs. Deidara frowned, forcing his way between people and coffee tables to dump his bags with Sasori.

"Oh, don't worry un, I can probably fit in next to you… we'll figure something out… I was thinking, you know the 'ultimate shake' thing, yeah," he pointed to the menu board.

"What, the one with everything in?" Sasori's eye's widened.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you'd share it with me… you know… because I've never had it before and I don't think I could drink a whole one…"

Sasori nodded, not trusting himself to speak fluently; the situation was getting more and more date-like. A few minutes later, Deidara returned from the counter carrying a very large paper cup, topped with whipped cream, marshmallows, mini Oreos and a flake. He squeezed himself into the nonexistent gap next to Sasori on the sofa, ignoring the disapproving looks from the couple next to him and Sasori's obvious embarrassment.

He couldn't help but notice that Sasori was now leaning as far away from him as was possible on such an overly crowded sofa.

"God, Sasori un, you look like I'm about to eat you…"

"Sorry, I just don't like crowded places. Personal space…" He answered; he had no real problem with personal space unless Deidara was the one invading it.

"Oh, sorry un, perhaps if I just…" He shifted sideways, holding the cup in the air so as not to spill any. His effort had little effect, and Deidara soon gave up and offered the cup to Sasori who took it, grateful for the distraction.

"So, Danna un," Deidara asked, nicking one of the mini Oreos from the top of the cup. "Do you like it?"

"mmmph." Sasori nodded getting cream on his nose.

Deidara laughed at this, making Sasori even more nervous than he already was.

"What?"

"You got cream on your face un."

If Sasori had been the kind of person that blushed, he would have done so, but Sasori being Sasori, he merely remained passive in a slightly mote embarrassed way than normal. After a few moments watching Sasori trying and failing to lick it off with his tongue; something which was quite obviously impossible but rather amusing, Deidara relented and wiped it off for him, licking his finger clean.

Sasori couldn't help but notice how cliché the situation was getting, even if Deidara hadn't meant it like that. Despite the fact that they were not actually on a date, there was no way Sasori was going to play the part of the girl. He would have to get Deidara back for this.

"Your turn" he said, smirking slightly and passing the cup to Deidara.

"Thanks, un" the blonde grinned, taking a sip from the opposite side of the cup. As he did so, Sasori leant over him and, with the pretence of trying to see what Deidara had in his shopping bags, nudged him so that he too got cream on his face.

"What was that for un?" Deidara scowled.

"Oh, sorry" Sasori feigned innocence, wiping the cream off and licking his finger.

Deidara glared, but Sasori could tell he didn't mean it. "You did that on purpose yeah."

"No I didn't." The innocent look was wearing off.

"Yes you did un"

"I didn't." Sasori insisted.

"Did!" Deidara laughed, dipping his little finger into the cream and tapping Sasori on the nose with it.

"Oi, stop, we'll get chucked out." Sasori said, wiping the cream away before Deidara could and trying to look sensible again.

"Why are you always so serious yeah?" Deidara asked, taking another sip and carefully avoiding getting cream around his mouth.

"Why are you always so immature?"

"Because it's more fun."

Sasori didn't really have an answer to that, so he ignored his defeat and went back to nicking Oreos out of the whipped cream.

The situation seemed surreal to Deidara. Despite having spent most of period five Maths daydreaming about this kind of situation, he hadn't believed this could actually happen. Leaning closer to Sasori, the sense of non-reality deepened; he couldn't believe he was doing this, and he couldn't believe Sasori wasn't leaning away. It wasn't until their lips met that he was plunged back into reality.

This was happening.

Now.

It was _real._

And suddenly they were oblivious to anything else. They couldn't see the café; they didn't realize that the couple sitting next to them was now awkwardly silent; they couldn't feel the stares from the group of teenage girls at the other side of the room who were now holding a whispered argument as to whether Deidara was a boy or a girl.

They didn't notice as two more boys entered the café, one brunette and the other blonde, shirtless, and wearing a dripping wet pair of trousers.


	33. Fake

_AN: I'm sorry I havent updated recently, I've had a lot more school work to do this term, and before then I was making costumes for me and my friends (We went to MCM London in october, which was AWSOME please coment if you were there...) But enough excuses... I hope this chapter helps to make up for the lack of updates; I have not given up on this story and definately don't intend to. It gets kind of annoying when something you are waiting for gets discontinued, so i won't do that and besides i have already put a lot of work into the plot and written some of the much later chapters..._

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_WARNING: I'm sorry about any homophobic attitudes/language displayed in this fic. I do not agree with such opinions (and I really hope nobody here does), but in order to fit with the story some characters do express such views. _

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**Chapter 33**

**Fake**

The two boys ordered, and stood by the counter, waiting for their shakes. Naruto may have been dripping wet and freezing, but Cookie-shakes were still a priority; they were planning on drinking them on the way back to school.

Hearing Naruto growl, Kiba turned to look in the direction he was facing.

"How come they get all the girls?" Naruto asked trying to sound sufficiently annoyed.

Despite being bisexual, he was by no means jealous; Sasuke was, in his opinion, far better looking than either of the pair on the couch. Although the blonde's face was almost completely obscured by the red head's but Naruto could tell she wasn't his type. In general he preferred tomboy kind of girls and the mass of blonde hair almost rivaled Ino's in its typical girlie-ness; it probably took a whole bottle of hairspray per day to get it to stay up like it did, and the side fringe had obviously been straightened.

But he had a reputation to keep up, which meant checking out any popular-looking girls and reacting accordingly. Besides, he recognized the red head as an Akatsuki student, and any reason to complain about them was good enough; his clothes were dripping wet and he was beginning to feel cold, so complaining came naturally.

Beside him, Kiba was thinking along pretty much the same lines. The new boy had barely been at school long enough for Kiba to remember his name but Kiba had to admit that_ if_ he was bi (which he _definitely wasn't_) Kankurou would have been exactly his type. Kiba had almost successfully convinced himself that his admiration for the other boy was simply due to his personality and style (the cat-ear hoodie was just awesome after all…) but that explanation didn't really explain his sudden lack of interest in finding a new girlfriend.

But reputations had to be kept.

"I know," Kiba added, "Who the hell would want to date one of those snobs? It would be worse than dating _Sasuke._" He snickered.

"Hey! Sasuke isn't that bad…"

"Just because you fancy him" Kiba laughed again, still watching the couple in the corner who were now practically making out. Naruto laughed awkwardly.

"Er, Kiba, I just realized… they're both wearing the hoodie." Naruto pointed out awkwardly as the blonde shifted to straddle the redhead; the red cloud stood out on the back of the black hoodie.

"And? Two people from the same school _can_ date, Naruto."

"It's an all boys' school."

"What the… Oh. My. God." Kiba's eyes widened as he suddenly realized what Naruto had meant. "It's a _guy_?"

Kiba pulled the camera-phone from his pocket and before Naruto could stop him, he had already started taking photos. This was the perfect opportunity to get them back for what they had done over the holidays.

"Kiba, what are you doing?" Naruto hissed.

"Getting revenge…" Kiba said nonchalantly, still taking photos, "They trashed our school, now they have to pay. With any luck, by the end of tomorrow the whole of Konoha will know what fags they all are." he snarled in an attempt to cover any traces of internal debate about his own sexuality. He couldn't be homophobic_ and_ bisexual, could he? Anyway, liking other guys was just wrong and perverted and sick and it just wasn't natural as far as he could see. He was one of the most popular boys in the class and there was no way he was falling for the new kid; no-matter how fit he might be he was still a boy and, Kiba told himself, he _didn't _like_ boys_. What would Naruto think of him if he could read his thoughts right now?

The blonde was quiet; he knew he should have said something or at least tried to stop his friend but it was times like this that reminded him why Sasuke and he weren't open about their relationship.

And now he was sitting back, letting Kiba screw up somebody else's life, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything. He knew Sasuke would want him to, but he couldn't face letting himself or his boyfriend get hurt. It would be a lot easier to just let things happen; after all, they were just Akatsuki boys. Posh, stuck up, private school kids who were probably spoilt anyway. They deserved to have things go wrong just for once in their lives, it was only fair.

"Two Lemon Cheesecake Shakes", came the voice from behind the counter, as the two paper cups appeared beside the boys, providing a welcome distraction from their own thoughts. Kiba slid his mobile back into his pocket and they picked up their drinks before heading out into the street, Naruto shivering in his wet clothes.

Inside the shop, Sasori and Deidara were still concentrating far more on each other than their cookie-shake, which sat forgotten on the coffee table beside them.

This was an evening that Shikamaru had been dreading for the past week. It wasn't that he ever did anything after school anyway, but having to sit nicely and engage in "polite conversation" with his mother's friends meant he couldn't sit in his room for the evening and simply pretend to be doing something constructive.

Tonight, his mother had chosen to host the fortnightly 'working mothers' evening, which meant he had to come downstairs and be sociable. It wasn't even a proper group, just a few of his mum's friends who met up for drinks occasionally. Ino's mother would of coarse be there, along with some other parents who's names he should remember, but didn't.

He cringed as the doorbell rang.

"Shikamaru, can you get that for me?" His mother's voiced echoed up the stairs from the kitchen where she was busy preparing the food.

"Coming…" He called back, reluctantly slamming the laptop shut and swinging his legs off the bed before standing up and leaving the bedroom, stepping out into the wide landing. His bare feet padded across the thick, red, carpet as he felt his way towards the stairs, having not bothered to switch the hallway light on.

He hated answering the door to his mother's friends. They made him feel inadequate, as if he was too young and childish to be a real part of society. He had to act cultured and intelligent, which of course he was, but usually he was too lazy to show it.

The doorbell rang again, just as he reached the bottom of the stairs, accompanied by another call from his mother.

"Shikamaru!"

"I'm _coming_."

Taking a deep breath, Shikamaru straightened up from his usual slouching position, and attempted to look a little less bored than usual. He opened the door to reveal a smartly dressed woman in her late forties, carrying a long, thin gift bag, presumably containing a bottle of wine for Mrs. Nara.

"Hello there," She beamed, "I'm Julie, you must be Shikamaru! Gosh, you have grown since I last saw you."

This was hardly surprising, since they had last met at least ten years ago.

"Hello," he smiled back at her, before gesturing her into the house. "Come in, my mum is in the kitchen."

Hidan ran along forest road, sweat completely messing up his normally perfect hair, dripping in rivulets down his bare back, soaking his shorts and underwear. The silver pendant bounced up and down against his chest with each step. His breathing was heavy, but this was the last stretch of his run and he slowed down as he reached the school gates. Jogging into the small staff car park and finally stopping in front of the blue side door. He leant against the wall for a moment, trying to get his breath back, running his hands through his hair trying to plaster it into its original position.

When he had recovered sufficiently, he stood straight again and punched the appropriate code into the door before twisting the handle and stepping inside. It was cold inside as usual; the radiators were turned off to save trust fund money.

As Zetsu had pointed out, they were also saving the planet but despite being summer, the school was almost always too cold. Hidan was cooling down quickly now that he had stopped running, but he had to sign in at the office before he could have a shower and put some proper clothes on. Shakily, he made his way along the corridor and through the correct doorway into the large open room. The secretary sat at her long desk, surrounded by papers, computers and office stationary, industriously filling out forms. It was pretty much night time outside, but the room was brightly lit.

After taking a moment or two for his eyes to adjust to the light, Hidan noticed Deidara, who was bent over the register, writing his name down.

"So," asked the large red-haired woman who had sat next to Shikamaru on the sofa, "How are you these days? I haven't seen you for… ooohh… about four years. You look so grown up these days!"

Shikamaru smiled, everyone had said this to him, even Ino's mum who he saw every morning on the way to school.

"So, do you have a girlfriend yet? Or are you still a bit young for that kind of thing?" Shikamaru felt tempted to point out that he was plenty old enough, but decided that that wasn't going to help things.

"No, I don't. I'm perfectly happy without one."

"There's no pretty girl you've got your eye on then? My son Jonathon has had loads of girlfriends and he's younger than you. I'd have thought you would have got one by now isn't that right Angela?"

The woman next to her, presumably Angela, was a weak looking person, wearing a vivid purple trouser suit as if she was trying to make up for her lack of other noticeable features. "Ahh, um, what was that Jane?"

"I was just remarking on how unusual it seems for a boy of Shikamaru's age not to have found a proper girlfriend."

"Hmmm…" Was Angela's only response before she returned to listening to the conversation Julie was having about somebody's friend's sister in Finland, who was supposedly giving birth to triplets that Autumn.

"Don't you worry…" Jane added to Shikamaru. "I'm _sure_ you will get one soon." With that, she left to go and help herself to more wine.

"Ooooh! What wonderful puzzles you have here! ", came a cry from the back of the room, where somebody had noticed the collection of wooden mathematical puzzles on the mantelpiece. Shikamaru's mother taught nuclear Physics at Konoha University and had always been intrigued by puzzles. Whenever she was working abroad, she usually brought him one home as a present for having been away for so long, a tradition which had lasted since Shikamaru was a kid; the puzzles getting harder as he grew more talented at them.

They were lined up above the fireplace, simply for want of any other flat surface on which to put them.

"Oh, they're Shikamaru's" His mother explained. "He'll show them all to you if you like, won't you, Shikamaru? ", his mother added; proud as always of her son's talents.

Shikamaru got up begrudgingly; after all, at least he would have something to do now that didn't involve having his private life judged as dysfunctional.

So the rest of his evening was spent demonstrating mathematical puzzles to various women whilst they complemented his genius. He was surprised that even the simplest ones, (such as the one where you have to make a pyramid out of three interlocking pieces of wood) seemed to pose a challenge to some of them; he knew his mother could do almost as many as he could and had assumed that they were all relatively simple.

Somehow the revelation made him feel slightly better. Unlike Naruto, Shikamaru did not work only in order to be praised, in fact he rarely worked at all, but on the rare occasions when he realized he was actually good at something, he felt as if he could almost feel motivated to improve.

Almost.

"You're late back." The Jashinist commented. It was past seven o'clock which meant the shops had been closed for a while now; even Cookie-Shake would no longer be open.

"hn… I met Sasori no Danna in town…" the blonde replied, grinning to himself as he finished writing his name and form in the register.

"You did, did you?" Hidan asked, noticing the grin. He stepped forwards to write his name down below Deidara's. "So, I couldn't come, and you just fucking happened to meet _him_ in town instead. I suppose he just _happened_ to go to eat at the same bloody place as you too?"

"Er… Yeah?" Deidara answered, unsure of what to say. Hidan was in a really weird mood today, but he wasn't going to let that spoil his happiness after what just happened with Sasori.

"You fucking asked him out didn't you?"

"No, un." The blonde replied, feigning surprise. It wasn't often that he lied to his best friend, but the tone of voice Hidan was using was getting really annoying. It was a mixture of pity, contempt and blame that Hidan had no right to use.

"You know he doesn't feel shit for you; stop stringing yourself along. He obviously doesn't like you in that way." Hidan said, keeping his eyes on the register so that his expression didn't give him away.

"I didn't ask him out, he was just in town. I met him and we decided to go to Cookie-shake. As _friends_. He had to go to his counseling appointment with Konan, so I offered to sign him in."

"And nothing else happened?"

"No, un." Deidara answered, unable to hide his smile at how untrue that was.

Unfortunately for him, Hidan turned round at that moment and caught the trace of a grin on Deidara's face just as the blonde tried to conceal it.

"You're lying." The Jashinist said suddenly, his voice was cold, but the eyes that met Deidara's were genuinely hurt.

"I'm not, un!" Deidara insisted, sensing that now was too late to go back and admit the truth.

"You fucking are!" Hidan said rather loudly, earning a glare from the secretary. "If, you know… well if I got asked out by _somebody_ I would tell-" He was cut off, as the secretary stood up, loudly and deliberately scraping her chair backwards across the floor. She was a young woman, but somehow her dark eyes, drawn face and thin, pointed nose made her seem more commanding and powerful than she had any right to be.

"_Children_…please…I am trying to work." She began; her voice sickly sweet, but her glare making the two boys take a step backwards towards the door. "Could you both take your petty argument elsewhere? This school does not tolerate language of that kind. You are lucky I have not you reported you to the head master." She grinned at their expressions, seemingly pleased at the effect she had had.

Hidan nodded silently before hurrying out of the door, closely followed by Deidara.

"God, she's creepy un…"

"Stop changing the fucking subject," Hidan hissed, as they made their way upstairs. "Did something happen with you and Sasori or not?"

"No, un. I told you already and I wouldn't lie to you, yeah." They had reached the landing where the first set of dorms were and Deidara was about to enter his, but Hidan stopped him, tugging him back by the arm of his hoodie. Deidara turned to look up at him.

"I just don't know whether I can trust you any more Dei, _am_ I your best friend or not?"

"Yes, of course you are un, but Sasori is important too. Just like you like Kakuzu, un."

"But_ I_ don't talk about Kakuzu _every_ _fucking_ time I speak."

"And I don't talk about Sasori all the time either un. Just stop being so hypocritical un. You can't have everything. Just because Sasori likes me more than Kakuzu likes you doesn't mean I have to ignore him. You're so selfish sometimes, yeah, I _can_ have other friends too." He yanked his sleeve away from Hidan's grip, "I'm going now, Sasori no Danna will be waiting for me un. Bye." The sentence was clipped, and Deidara spun round abruptly, entering his dorm, before slamming the door back in Hidan's face.

Hidan stood there for a moment, hearing muffled voices filtering from behind the door as Sasori acknowledged Deidara's return. There was a creaking of bed springs, followed by muffled laughter, but Hidan turned away.

He trusted Deidara. No matter how much evidence pointed against the blonde, Deidara had never lied to him and Hidan cursed himself for ever doubting his friend.

Now he had only made thing worse.


	34. Mess

**Chapter 34**

**Mess**

"So, what do you think Shikamaru?" Kiba asked, gripping the phone tightly as he spoke down the line in an attempt to control his excitement. His plan was just perfect, even the genius himself couldn't possibly come up with anything better! It would be ultimate humiliation for the Akatsuki _and_ it proved Kiba's theory that they were probably all completely girly and desperate. It _was_ a private all boys' school after all…

Silence cracked down the line.

"Shika, are you still there? You haven't fallen asleep on me have you?", Kiba was only half joking; you could never tell with Shikamaru.

"No. Your stupidity just left me speechless… though I probably shouldn't have been too surprised."

Kiba frowned; that was not the positive answer he had been expecting. Admittedly Shikamaru didn't really do overexcited praise, even so his plan was flawless and deserved a bit more enthusiasm than that.

"But, it works perfectly! We still have spray paint left over from the art studios last time, and Naruto already enlarged the photos and printed them on the graphics room printer-thing. The paper in there is massive, and Asuma Sensei doesn't stay overnight after school so it was easy to sneak in there!" Kiba gushed, barely taking time to breath between scentences. "…And my camera is new so it's a really good one, you know my sister works at the phone shop in town; it's the highest resolution camera you can get on a phone!" His eye's gleamed as he envisaged the chaos that the photos could cause. "All we have to do is meet up down there tonight, Naruto can sneak out easily and so can I, all we need is for you to check the plan over. After this, there is no way the Akatsuki boys can beat us."

"The details aren't the problem; it's the whole idea of the plan that's troublesome. Fair enough, it would probably have a pretty big impact on them, but that's not the point. The point is that its going too far. We're supposed to be the good guys; they're supposed to be the spoilt brats who keep looking down on us. If we use their sexuality against them, we haven't won, we just loose first."

Kiba frowned at the phone. How come Shikamaru always managed to turn things his way?

"Oh, come on! You have to admit it is pretty funny! They spend all their time trying to prove they're stronger than us and it turns out they're just a bunch of gays…" He broke off, chuckling, loving the glow of control he got from taking his own insecurities out on other people… not that he was feeling insecure about _anything_ of course…

But Kiba didn't like not being in control.

"Kiba, stop being so stupid. I know at least three guys that are attracted to other men, probably more; I haven't counted, and I doubt they would appreciate you laughing at them. I know you're going to go ahead with this 'amazing plan' regardless of my opinion, but I'm not going to get up in the middle of the night to help you. Nor am I saying I agree with it."

"But they're _Akatsuki_ boys. They need to learn what real life is like, and I know everybody that you know, and I don't know any guys that aren't straight."

"Kiba, you can be so blind sometimes…" and with that, Shikamaru hung up.

Kiba scowled as the dialing tone buzzed in his ear. He knew Shikamaru didn't bother with the conventional way of finishing a telephone call; he simply got to the last thing that needed to be said and hung up, but his final line hadn't exactly been friendly.

If Kiba had been less pissed off, he might have wondered what it was supposed to mean, but he was not exactly in the mood to listen to the genius anyway. His plan was going to work whether Shikamaru liked it or not.

* * *

At Akatsuki High Deidara was already in bed, curled up tightly amongst the insubstantial bedding. His feet were cold and the light was still on making his eyes hurt, but Sasori would turn it off for him when the red head had finished in the shower.

The bedroom he shared with Sasori was smaller than most of the other dorms, although it didn't help that most of the floor was obscured by a mixture of dirty clothes and abandoned folders and textbooks. The beds, like all beds in the school, were pretty basic, metal frames with no headboards. The mattresses were yellowed and slightly lumpy, but the boys had got used to them easily enough as they had been in the same dorm since year seven. This was home now, and they were happy enough with it.

Of course, Deidara thought, as Sasori emerged from the bathroom, it was good being able to live with his Danna, regardless of the state of the dorms. And his friends were good too, although Hidan was being a bit over possessive at the moment. He would just have to get over it, the damn hypocrite… there was no way Deidara was going after him.

"Goodnight, Dei…" He said, smiling awkwardly, before balancing his way around the piles of stuff which covered the floor, trying to reach the light switch.

"Night Danna un" The blonde smiled in return before Sasori managed to turn the light off and the room went dark.

"Danna, un," Deidara whispered, hearing the telltale creaking of floorboards as Sasori began the short but perilous journey back to his bed. He stopped as he heard his name.

"Yeah?"

"Don't I get a goodnight kiss yeah?"

"If I can make it to your bed without being eaten by whatever is lurking under those textbooks, then yes…" Deidara could see his silhouette moving closer, before the redhead reached out, brushing Deidara's fringe out of his face and leaning over to kiss his forehead.

"I meant a proper kiss, yeah…"

"You seem a lot less innocent than I expected you to be…" Sasori began, but was cut off as Deidara's lips met his in a short chaste kiss.

"Goodnight, Danna un. You can climb over my bed to get to yours, if you want to avoid the floor."

"Thanks, Dei." Sasori said, scrambling over the end of Deidara's bed and onto his own with as much dignity as he could. He made a brief effort at crawling seductively, but nearly lost his balance on the uneven mattress and gave up at the sound of Deidara's barely contained laughter.

"Deidara?" He whispered when he was safely under the covers and away from further humiliation. "I was just wondering… you know today… was that your first kiss? I mean, I'm just curious…"

"un…Kind of…"

"What do you mean 'kind of'?"

"It was the first that meant something, but _technically_ it was my second, yeah."

"Who was your first then?"

"…Hidan, un…"

"Hidan?!" That was definitely not the answer Sasori had been expecting, but now he thought about it, it would explain a lot.

"Like I said, un, it didn't mean anything. We just wanted to know if we definitely liked other guys in that way. It was in year eight yeah…"

"So Hidan is…"

"He's bi. But please don't tell him I said that un! It was supposed to be kept secret obviously… yeah… He's always worried about his reputation... and also it's kind of blatantly obvious who he likes…" Deidara trailed off.

"Oh…" Sasori replied, immediately jumping to the wrong conclusion.

So Hidan liked Deidara? And Deidara knew? Of course, Sasori thought, it explained why Hidan had reacted so badly earlier. He couldn't help but feel slightly guilty for being the one that Deidara chose, but the blonde had made up his mind, and without him Sasori would probably have given up on life. Hidan might have been his best friend, but Hidan would cope right? If it wasn't for him being so overprotective then the two would still have been friends.

It wasn't Sasori's fault was it? He had only done what he thought seemed the right thing to do.

He hadn't realized Hidan would actually be jealous…

* * *

Kiba's alarm was set for four o'clock, deciding that it would be easier to sneak out when his parents were deeply asleep than to do so just after they had gone to bed.

He felt blindly towards the insistent beeping noise, hitting the off button before it woke his parents up. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up before he could fall asleep again.

Kiba flicked the light on and began to get dressed, his mind fuzzy but determined and his eyes struggling to stay open against the gleaming light. He pulled his tracksuit over the underwear he had been sleeping in; not wanting to waste time and far too tired to be worried about personal hygiene.


	35. Pink

_Sorry about the angst in this one guys, I promised you I wouldn't go OTT but this kind of needed to happen. Don't worry, I'm not going all depressed on you, this is all part of my master plan..._

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 35**

**Pink**

Naruto was waiting for him a little way into the Forest, holding a roll of posters in one hand. The spray paints were in a large plastic box on the floor, along with a tin of fluorescent pink wall paint that he had found in the graphics rooms. It was not yet sunrise and the only light came from the street lamps that lined the path between the trees; painting the cold morning with a warm orange glow.

Naruto smiled awkwardly as he approached; he had promised himself that he would never do anything to hurt Sasuke, that he would never keep secrets from him, but here he was doing both of those things.

"Hey," Kiba said quietly. Nobody could here them from here, but they were doing something illegal so whispers seemed necessary.

"Yo, could you give me a hand with the spray paint?" Naruto asked, sounding falsely cheerful. It was too late to back down now.

"Sure." Kiba replied, grabbing the box whilst Naruto picked up the tin. "Let's go."

And with that, the two boys headed out of the forest and across the road.

* * *

Hidan's alarm went off at five.

It wasn't that he was a mornings kind of person; he hated getting up early; but his busy running schedule meant that he didn't have enough time during the normal day to fit everything in. He didn't want to become a social outcast because he spent too much time training to do normal stuff with his friends.

Although if Deidara was going off with Sasori, he wouldn't have much to lose anyway.

He hit the off button before he woke Kakuzu up.

He got changed as quietly as possible, half feeling as though he was still unconscious. His head pounded with each movement, but although the accumulated lack of sleep was probably not that healthy, he consoled himself that at least after a while he might start to loose weight.

Deidara kept saying that he was getting too thin, but that was probably just Deidara wanting to look better than him. Like he could ever beat the blonde anyway.

But hopeless as it seemed, he felt he had to at least try; running at least four miles per day. Except on Saturdays, which Jashin had declared days of rest and reflection; although he made up for that on Wednesdays like today which were declared days of physical sacrifice and penitence.

Technically everyday was declared a day of physical sacrifice and penitence, but Wednesdays especially so.

It was therefore fitting that Hidan's head should hurt so much that he felt he was about to keel over, and he kept that thought in mind as he crept downstairs and out into the car park.

The first thing he noticed as he stepped outside was the colour.

It wasn't that Hidan had anything against the colour pink, but normally the school's railings were a uniform rusty black. Pein didn't really go for flamboyant decorations.

He blinked…

They were still pink…

Pink railings, pink sprayed trees, pink paint covering the windscreens of the teacher's cars, pink words daubed inexpertly over the tarmac.

The insults were unimaginative and even miss-spelt in some places, but the words coupled with the crudely spray-painted caricatures of various Akatsuki boys either in drag or with each other's dicks in their mouths had a pretty clear meaning.

He blinked again…

And that was when he noticed the posters. He hadn't noticed them at first, but once he had seen the first one he realized that they were everywhere. Taped to the railings, walls, cars, doors, trees; the photos of Deidara and Sasori that Kiba had taken the previous night were repeated everywhere he looked.

Deidara _had_ lied.

He ran over to the gates, ignoring the pink paint that was now decorating his trainers, and looked out into the street, hoping that nobody had yet noticed the state of the school. Although it was only just past five in the morning, forest road was already beginning to fill with cars and the few pedestrians walking by couldn't help being drawn to the bright colour. Luckily they didn't seem to care, and just walked on seeming slightly confused.

Except for the two boys standing on the opposite side of the street, waiting for somebody to appear; one blonde, one brunette, telltale pink paint staining their fingers. Their voices were carried away by the traffic, but Hidan could se that they were laughing.

At him.

Sticking his middle finger up at them, he mouthed at them to fuck of, before turning around again, too late to miss what Kiba mouthed back.

"We win. Faggots"

He walked back to the door, knowing that they were still watching him, talking behind his back. He ripped one of the posters off the wall before punching the code in and stepping inside, instantly loosing the cool act and racing upstairs, no longer worrying about whether he woke the teachers up.

He could get detention for every day of the year as far as he cared; Deidara was going to pay.

Reaching the landing outside Deidara's dorm, Hidan didn't pause before slamming his fist against the door; wincing slightly as his knuckles made contact with the blue painted wood. Still holding the poster in one hand, he grabbed the door knob, rattling it to no avail.

"Deidara get the fuck here! Deidara! ... Jashin damn you… Deidara!"

The door refused to open, so he resorted to banging against it some more. "Deidara you bitch open the fucking door."

"Go away un. We don't want to know."

"Deidara! Let me in."

There was no answer.

"Fuck this; this is all your fault. If you don't let me in now I'm going to smash the door down."

"Like that's going to work, yeah."

"_Deidara_!" He continued pounding on the door; the blows getting weaker and weaker until his arm began to feel like lead. "Deidara get out here!"

He stopped beating the door as he heard the blonde make his way towards it, before the chair that they used to keep the door locked with was pulled out from beneath the handle and the door opened to reveal a none too pleased Deidara. Sasori watched from his bed on the other side of the room, not wanting to leave the warmth of his covers so early in the morning.

"What do you want?" The blonde's eyes were half closed and his hair was a mess. He wanted to be asleep, not dealing with his emotionally unstable best friend right now.

Hidan held up the poster, still shaking slightly with a combination of adrenalin and anger. "What the fuck is this about?"

It took a few moments for Deidara to register, before he tore the paper from Hidan's hands, scrunching it up as if to hide the evidence, but it was too late for that. "Where did you get that?" He demanded.

"You lied to me." Hidan growled, ignoring the question. "You _lied._"

"Hidan, calm down." Sasori's half bored voice came from within the room.

"Don't patronize me! Bastard!" Hidan butted in, glaring over Deidara's shoulder before turning back to the blonde in the doorway. "The school is fucking pink, there are Jashin damned Konoha kids outside laughing at us and it's _your fault_!"

"Since when was the school pink yeah? What do you mean?"

"Since you made them think we're _all_ fucking _fags_."

"From what Deidara was saying last night, that's a bit hypocritical of you Hidan." Sasori added.

Yeah, Deidara said not to mention it, but Hidan was being such a bastard he felt he had to stick up for the blonde somehow. Deidara had been his reason for living, and to have that reason insulted made him feel slightly off balance, like the feeling you get from stepping off a roundabout. He had promised himself he would make Deidara happy, and he wanted to think that was a worthy enough reason to live for.

Hidan was about to ask what he meant by that, but Deidara cut in before he had to explain why Sasori knew. "How dare you say that un! Do you think that I wanted this to happen? Do you think we would just sit there making out while they took photos if we knew what they were doing? For god's sake, I'm not a slut."

"Your hand was down his pants and you were shagging each other's faces off on first date, and I'm assuming it was first date because otherwise you would have _told_ me. So yes, you're fucking _obviously_ sluts. Oh yeah, that's right, you wouldn't have told me because you're a fucking lying bastard who doesn't know what loyalty even means. Slut."

"No need to be jealous Hidan, just because _you_ can't get any, un." Deidara said.

He knew anything related to Kakuzu was a sore point, something to be avoided in everyday arguments, but this had gone too far. They weren't just teasing anymore; Deidara wanted to hurt the Jashinist as much as possible right now, and the blonde could see from Hidan's clenched fists that the feeling was mutual. It was only the fact that Hidan was trying not to loose his cool in front of Sasori that meant the blonde wasn't getting brutally murdered.

Seemingly his reputation still mattered more than anything else; Deidara had always hated that about the boy.

"Get the hell away from our bedroom, un." Deidara yelled back, Sasori smirking at the word 'our'.

"You should at least have told me! Liar! I _thought_ we were supposed to be friends. We were supposed to share _everything_!" Hidan hissed back, quiet enough that Sasori couldn't hear. If you wanted to be popular you had to pretend you didn't care about things like this.

"Well I've got Danna now," Deidara replied, his voice cold and final, "Stay out of my private life. It's not your business any more." With that he closed the door in Hidan's face, leaving the Jashinist standing in the hallway, suddenly terrified of what he had done.

"That's it" He called after a few moments of silence. "I'm going! If you're not going to apologize now I'm never speaking to you again!" It wasn't until after he had said it that Hidan realized how childish and futile it sounded.

On the other side of the door, Deidara was sitting on the floor, his knees curled up to his chest as he listened to Hidan's final request. He almost called back, but he kept silent. It was time for them to go their own ways. It was better suddenly than for them to drift apart slowly, at least this way he could remember how they used to be. Real art couldn't last for ever.

He clenched his teeth as he heard Hidan leave; his footsteps fading down the corridor.

It was only then that he noticed Sasori's arms around him, pulling him to his feet and guiding him back to bed. The blonde was shaking; his eyes scrunched closed trying not to cry.

He had promised to make Deidara happy, but so far Sasori had only made things worse.

Kakuzu looked up as Hidan stormed into the room, slamming the door behind him and running straight into the bathroom, deliberately avoiding eye contact. Kakuzu blinked as the door slammed shut, leaving the room silent.

"Hidan? Its still night time. Go back to bed." He said tiredly, not wanting to sound too worried.

"Shut up Kakuzu! This is all your fucking fault!" Hidan shouted; his voice slightly shaky, as he sank to the cold, linoleum covered floor, his back leaning against the door.

Light shone in through the frosted window opposite him. It would have been dark outside, but the front of school, where his dormitory was, had bright lights illuminating the building's architecture and casting a bright glare through it's windows.

"Just get out of there and go to bed Hidan. You'll be tired tomorrow." Kakuzu called, not getting up.

"Like you care."

"Are you okay?"

Hidan didn't answer; he wasn't sure what to say. Kakuzu lay there in the silence, worried he had sounded too worried. He was supposed to want the boy to hurt anyway wasn't he?

"Suit yourself I'm going back to bed. If you want to cry your eyes out in there it's your choice, just be quiet."

Kakuzu had expected at least an insult in return but there was still no answer.

Hidan just sat there, listening. He had left the door unlocked; hoping that Kakuzu might come and find him but there was no sound from within the bedroom except the occasional creaking of bed springs or rustling duvet.

* * *

Kankurou awoke feeling stiff and tired. Needless to say, their sleeping arrangements had not been working too well. He had slept so little over the past week that he probably wouldn't have woken up at all if Gaara wasn't repeatedly poking his side.

"Its morning, big brother."

Kankurou grunted in reply. Rolling over and in turn shaking Temari awake.

"Huh?"

"Gaara says its morning." Kankurou grunted, closing his eyes again.

Temari sprang to life immediately, standing up and shoving Kankurou off the mattress and onto the floor, before lifting their makeshift bed and propping it against the cleanest available wall. They had decided early on that leaving things in contact with the floor would probably not be a good plan.

Kankurou stood up, glaring at his older sister. Their morning routine always ended up like this and that floor was just not hygienic. If he got ill and died he was definitely going to blame her.

She smiled innocently back. "So what are you doing at school today? You're both coping fine I hope?"

"I'll live." Kankurou replied, Gaara just nodded.

"Met any fit guys?" That remark was aimed at Kankurou.

"Kind of… Just one…" he replied quietly, trying not to make a big deal out of things. His sibling were fine with him being gay, after all Temari was bisexual herself and Gaara was opposed to prejudices of any kind just because he was a good person. Not always a nice person, but a good person all the same.

But that didn't mean Temari couldn't make fun of him for anything slightly romantic in his life. Yes she would support him, but teasing was all part of the deal; she was his sister after all.

"Awwwww! How sweet! Do you like him?" she gushed, smirking slightly at Kankurou's uncomfortable expression. "Do you? Do you l-o-v-e him?"

"What did I hear about you and that kid Shikamaru?"

"Stop subject changing." she laughed.

"_You_ stop subject changing!"

"Brother, Sister, will you please shut up and get changed? We will be late for school." Gaara butted in, already dressed and ready. Kankurou turned on him.

"Gaara! Who do you like?"

"Nobody."

"Yeah you do!" Kankurou insisted. "No need to be shy with us little bro." He reached out to ruffle the younger brother's hair, but Gaara stepped aside, smirking.

"Kankurou, you do realize that your hair is sticking up at the back."

"Oh Sh-", he began before remembering he wasn't supposed to swear unnecessarily in front of Gaara while his sister was around. "Not again…" He spun round and ran out into the corridor and across to the communal bathroom.

"So…" Temari began after a few moments silence. "If there's somebody you like you can tell me anything…"

"God… not you too…" Gaara replied. "We've only been at this school for a couple of days and you're already interrogating me."

Kankurou returned a couple of moments later, smelling of toilets.

"I think I'm going to have to live with messy hair today. One of the toilets is blocked and the bathroom is kind of flooded… That and the tap water has gone a weird brown colour. Man this place stinks"

"You stink." Temari said.

"Your face stinks."

"We're going to be late for school!"

Xxxxxxxxxx

Hidan was still curled up against the bathroom door as the sun began to rise. Shivering with cold, his face buried in his arms, trying not to think. He had been waiting for half an hour and he realized now Kakuzu wasn't going to come.

Nobody was coming.

Not that he blamed him; after all he was always in the way. He could imagine all too clearly how it would feel to have Kakuzu simply open the door and wrap his arms around him. He could hear his voice right now, telling him it was all OK, that he wasn't going to leave him alone like this ever again.

But he knew now that wasn't going to happen. He just got in the way of things. Kakuzu wouldn't come because he would rather sleep than be bothered by his insignificant dorm-mate, who wasn't attractive or interesting enough to actually care about. He was always just in the way.

In the way of his ex-best friend because he was too possessive to step aside and let Deidara be happy.

And in the way of Kakuzu because he didn't have time to deal with Hidan's over dramatic arguments all the time, because Kakuzu always had to come stitch him up afterwards.

So it wasn't surprising that nobody cared any more.

"Fuck…" he whispered "Shit…Fucking shit…Crap… What do I do now?"

Clasping his pendant, he pressed the cool metal against his forehead, trying to clear his thoughts.

"Jashin… what must I do?" he whispered, knowing he wouldn't get a direct answer. He would have to think, but already he felt his mind becoming clearer, calmer.

Jashin taught that persecution enlightened the soul, but this didn't really count as persecution seen as he was the one that was getting in the way of others. He wasn't persecuted, just unwanted.

And his soul wasn't feeling particularly enlightened.

Suffering was the path to holiness, he knew that, but he wasn't suffering enough either. Yes, he felt like he wanted to die, but that was because he was pathetic and childish, not because he was suffering.

And there was the answer Jashin had given him; he could feel it.

He needed to suffer _more_.

He let go of the pendant, letting it fall to his chest once more. Shakily he stood, using the side of the bath for support. What he was going to do was controversial, but he remembered his parents had done it when they were alive, and they had been proud. Proud to be followers of Jashin; proud that they were prepared to suffer for their god's pleasure; proud that Jashin needed them.

And right now, Hidan needed to feel needed.

Standing in front of the sink, Hidan took Kakuzu's razor from the shelf in front of him.

It was a cheap disposable thing, made from orange plastic with a cover to prevent anybody from cutting themselves accidentally. Hidan removed it hastily, eager to please Jashin as quickly as possible. His fingers were still trembling from cold as he held the blade above his bare arm; a little way up so that he could cover any damage with his shirt sleeve.

Carefully, deliberately, he pressed the razor into his arm and dragged it across the skin, waiting for a few moments to see the blood begin to collect in the shallow cut. Hesitantly he brought his arm to his mouth, licking the trail of blood clean before putting the razor to his skin again and drawing it across, trying to cut deeper.

He cut again and again, as hard as he could, clenching his teeth and concentrating on the burning sensation. The blood was beginning to run down his arm. He could feel nothing else, but the need to keep going.

He didn't notice the tears until they began to drip onto the wound, splashing into the blood which trickled down his arm. The hunger for pain was scaring him slightly, this didn't feel normal.

As he heard the alarm clock go off in the bedroom, he realized that he should stop, but he couldn't. Just once more. Just a little bit deeper.

The beeping got louder, faster and then it stopped.

He could hear Kakuzu's voice now, he sounded anxious. He must have seen that Hidan had not returned.

But the Jashinist felt as if he was in a different world as he pressed the blade to his skin again, twisting slightly, trying to find more pain; more blood. He felt like he was on the rooftop again, nothing else mattered.

He heard Kakuzu's footsteps reach the bathroom door, but he couldn't stop himself. He needed this.

He blinked away fresh tears from his eyes, wincing as the salt water mixed with the blood. He gripped the razor tighter as Kakuzu opened the door, Hidan stopped suddenly, keeping his back to the other boy, his head bowed so he couldn't see his tears reflected in the mirror.

"Hidan?"

There was no answer.

Kakuzu rushed over to him, angry at the Jashinist for making him so worried. He grabbed his shoulder roughly and turned Hidan to face him. The boy looked up blankly, tear-stained eyes meeting the masked boy's shocked face.

"Hidan! Give me that!" He yelled, grabbing the razor from Hidan's still shaking fingers, "Stop it!" Hidan still looked up at him blankly. "Stop it! Crazy Jashinist rituals… Why did you do that to your self?" He sat Hidan on the side of the bath before going to the sink, turning the cold tap on full blast and thrusting the blood stained razor under it, ignoring the fact that the water was spraying everywhere. "Why did you have to do that Hidan? Stop it. Don't _ever_ do that again."

There was silence, filled by the gushing of water before Kakuzu turned the tap off, dried the razor and threw it at the bin. It missed, and sat on the floor, the two boys watching it for a few seconds before Kakuzu turned and pulled Hidan to his feet again.

"Get up. Wash your arm. Promise you won't do that again." Hidan turned the water on, ignoring the last demand. "Promise you won't do it again."

Hidan grabbed some toilet roll, drying his arm.

"Hidan!"

"See, Its not that bad, Its just a small cut, Its not dangerous."

"Promise you wont ever do that again!" Kakuzu yelled back, grabbing the first aid box from the cupboard and turning to face Hidan.

"I'm fine Kuzu, Seriously."

"Promise me Hidan." Kakuzu tried to make eye contact but the Jashinist turned away.

"Yeah, yeah, I won't…"

It wasn't sincere but it was as good as he was going to get. Kakuzu bandaged Hidan's arm in silence, unsure of what to say. He finished, and Hidan held the arm to his chest possessively, still unable to meet Kakuzu's eyes.

"Hidan… Are you-" He was cut off as he started to speak.

"Shut up. I'm okay, just stop mentioning it." He said, coldly.

"Why did you…?"

"Just…shit… I'm fine. Seriously."

And with that, the silver haired boy turned and left the bathroom in silence.


	36. Cereal

_Hello people,_

_sorry it has taken me over a month to upload one measly chapter... I hope you can forgive me, but i have drawn some (pretty terrible) ilustrations to try make up for it a bit. And ecause i was hoping to illustrate this fully as i wrote it but never had enough time. If you want to see them, my deviantart acount is xeveryonesxfangirlx _

_i think the best is probably the one titled "retourned" so far, but there are only three._

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**Chapter 36**

**Cereal**

The morning had been unusually quiet in Hidan's dorm. The Jashinist had barely spoken, and once the tears and blood had been cleaned away, Kakuzu didn't know what to say. Pretending nothing had happened wasn't easy, but Hidan wasn't into talking about his feelings and Kakuzu didn't know what to say. The awkward silence between them didn't help things, but Hidan couldn't even look at his room-mate knowing that his eyes were still red with tears.

As soon as possible, the Jashinist had shut himself in the bathroom again; in order to shower and fix his hair; taking longer than necessary in order to avoid his dorm mate. But someone had to break the silence.

"Kuzu?" Hidan called from the bathroom, running gelled fingers through his hair, as he heard the older boy leaving their room for breakfast. Kakuzu paused halfway through the doorway, thankful that Hidan was talking again.

"Er," Hidan began awkwardly, not sure how to begin; he wasn't used to asking favours from his dorm-mate "Can you, ya know, save a space for me at breakfast?"

"What? With us? But you're on Deidara's side…" Hidan flinched slightly at the words, before giving his hair a few final tugs and leaving the bathroom.

"It's _my_ side, but I don't think I'll sit there today. I need a fucking change. And besides," his voice dropped almost to a whisper, "there's some shit going on…" Kakuzu's eyes widened, comprehending.

"Yeah, you can sit with us, don't worry." He replied, a little too quickly.

"I'm not worried."

"…Good. Bye then." Kakuzu's forced smile was obvious despite the mask he was wearing and Hidan returned it grimly. For a moment, the Jashinist opened his mouth again, on the verge of saying thank you, but he didn't. Hidan couldn't admit that he needed help, least of all from Kakuzu.

The door swung closed and Hidan flopped backwards onto the bed. Today was going to be a long day. His mind began to wander back to the mornings events, and he sat up again quickly. Thinking was not something he wanted to do right now.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke lay in bed, facing the wall; waiting; Listening. The blinds were closed and the lights were off, but already dawn was beginning to creep in. And the Uchiha couldn't sleep. Not for want of tiredness, or because of the light, but because something was missing.

Or more specifically some_one_.

Sasuke wasn't worried about Naruto's safety; he knew he was perfectly capable of looking after himself; in fact he was more angry than concerned. The blonde had disappeared in the middle of the night- surely, as his boyfriend, Sasuke had the right to know what was going on?

Kiba's ventures were bad enough when he knew about them and if Naruto had chosen to keep this one secret from him it had to be even worse. Sasuke hated Akatsuki high as much as he hated his brother, but he couldn't stand Kiba much either.

The dog boy had a control over Naruto that Sasuke didn't and he knew far more about him than Sasuke did. They had been friends since primary school and Sasuke often wondered if Naruto would choose Kiba instead of him if he had the chance; after all, Kiba was fit, popular and daring, and whatever was happening tonight only added to the list of things Kiba new about Naruto that Sasuke did not.

The door handle rattled and it swung open, hitting the end of Sasuke's bed with a small 'thunk'. Sasuke didn't move. He listened as the door was closed again; more carefully this time.

He waited until Naruto had snuck back into bed before speaking. "Where were you?"

He heard the sharp intake of breath as Naruto realized he had been caught. "I…I didn't want you to know…"

"I can tell that. Where were you?" Sasuke hissed back.

Kiba knew. He was sure of it. Why couldn't he?

"Akatsuki."

"And why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't my idea; _I_ didn't want to do it. It was Kiba's fault… but you wouldn't have believed me anyway so I thought it was best you didn't know."

"_What_? You think keeping it a secret was going to make it right?" Lack of sleep always made things seem worse, but Naruto knew the disgust in Sasuke's voice was not solely his imagination.

"I didn't want to hurt you."

"_What did you do_?"

"I didn't do anything, I just helped Kiba. Please, It wasn't right, I know that, but I didn't have much choice. You know what Kiba's like. Can we just go to sleep? You'll find out in the morning, I'm feeling guilty enough already; I don't want to explain."

Sasuke lay in silence, too proud to act properly hurt. Too hurt to go back to sleep.

Xxxxxxxx

The morning was cold but bright; sunlight glinted off the high, pointed rooftops of Akatsuki high.

Beside the main school was a newer one-storey building that served as the uniform shop, music room and dining hall. White paint was peeling off the outer walls and the windows were either draughty or boarded up, but the kitchen staff did their best with what little food the school could budget for, and while the meals may not have been pleasant they were at least edible.

There was a small entrance foyer, filled with broken chairs and music stands. The sound of boys talking and eating filtered through the blue painted double doors lead from the foyer to the dining hall area, making Deidara stop abruptly.

Sasori narrowly avoided walking into him.

"Are you okay?" The red-head asked, stepping backwards.

"No, un."

"Sorry, stupid question I guess…"

"They all know, don't they, yeah? They can't not have noticed…"

Sasori stood awkwardly behind him, trying to think of some form of silver lining. "At least we don't have to worry about, you know, 'coming out'…"

"It's not that… I mean it is kind of un, but its mainly Hidan I'm worried about… Actually it's probably better this way, yeah" He turned around, grinning, "I'm proud to have someone like you as a boyfriend."

The smile was genuine and dazzling, and Sasori wondered why he hadn't thought of saying that earlier. He was determined to make it up to Deidara somehow, but it wasn't going as well as he had planned.

"Wish me luck, un…" Deidara said, determined. He was about to turn around again, but Sasori tugged him back, leaning up and wrapping his arms around his neck, kissing him.

And just as suddenly as it had begun, the kiss ended. Thin fingers gripped the arms of their uniform blazers and they were torn apart with what was probably more fury than strength. Deidara was flung sideways into the wall, whereas Sasori tripped backwards into the music stands. There was a loud crash as they began to topple over but Hidan ignored it, marching between the two of them and straight through the doors into the dining hall, his head down; avoiding eye contact.

The last of the music stands settled and the two boys remained where they were, shocked into silence.

"are you oka—" Sasori stopped, realizing it was the same question he had asked earlier, and cursing himself for not being better at this kind of situation. Deidara walked over to him, still visibly a little shaken. "Don't worry, yeah, I'm fine. I've got you now, I don't need… him… un…" He held out his hand to help the red head up.

There was not as big a reaction as Deidara had expected as he walked into the room, and in fact he felt almost disappointed at the lack of attention. He wrapped his arm around his boyfriend protectively and they crossed the hall together earning nothing but a few muffled whispers and curious glances.

In the far corner, next to the grand piano Hidan had just sat down next to Kakuzu; slamming his tray down and successfully spilling water onto his cornflakes. It didn't matter, he wouldn't eat them anyway.

From the other side of the table, Itachi glared at him.

"Hey guys," Hidan grinned with false enthusiasm receiving nothing but an awkward silence.

"Good fucking morning to you too".

"Will you please refrain from swearing at our table?" Itachi asked, although it was more of a demand than a question.

Hidan was about to retaliate, but Kakuzu kicked his leg meaningfully. It had taken a lot of persuasion for him to persuade Itachi to let him sit at the 'popular' table.

"So… how are you guys?" Hidan began again, "I don't get to speak to you much, but you've got to be more interesting than that lot" He gestured to where Deidara and Sasori were now sitting, along side Tobi and Kisame.

"Heh, they're not all that bad…" Zetsu's light side contradicted, but Hidan took no notice. "Tobi's more intelligent than he seems"

"Tobi?" Itachi asked incredulously, "Deidara or Kisame I can understand, but _Tobi _is _intelligent_?"

"Just because you don't know him that well **–Just because you fancy him...**" His fists clenched, and Itachi smirked.

"I'd say darkie won that argument." Itachi concluded, before Hidan cut in,

"But Deidara is _worse_, he's so immature and… I dunno" Hidan paused "He's so fucking pathetic…"

"Language, Hidan," The Uchiha drawled patronizingly.

"I think Deidara has had more than his share today," Kakuzu interjected "Just cos we're popular doesn't mean we spend our lunchtimes taking the piss out of you."

"Don't you think I've had a worse day than him?" The Jashinist hissed back, momentarily dropping the confidence act.

"Sorry," Kakuzu muttered, alarmed at Hidan's sudden change in demeanor "I didn't mean it like that".

Itachi was glaring at them by now, not used to being left out of the conversation.

"Don't you eat anything?" Zetsu asked, eyeing Hidan's cereal hungrily.

"Not breakfast; the cornflakes taste of soggy cardboard. It's not fucking natural…"

The bowl was whisked away from him before he could finish the sentence, much to Itachi's amusement.

Zetsu looked up to the Jashinist's indignant expression, "**What? We're hungry…**"

"You could have asked…"

"If you don't think we're polite enough, you could always go back to your little friends over there…" Itachi paused, gesturing to where the other side were sitting. "Oh wait, you couldn't could you? Because something tells me they don't want to be friends with you anymore..." He smirked, waiting for a reaction, but got none. Puzzled, he looked back down at his empty bowl, but the moment he looked away a large dollop of mushy grey cornflakes hit his head and began to trickle slowly down his face.

"Hidan! That was my breakfast!" Kakuzu yelled, before realizing who Hidan had flung it at.

In as dignified a manner as was possible Itachi used his hands to remove as much mess as was possible, before standing up and stalking icily out of the dining hall.

Hidan let out a bark of laughter, "Two- Nil to me…".

"What did you do that for? I know you don't like Itachi, but he did let you sit with us. **Bastard**.** But we've got to admit, it was quite funny…**"

As the conversation struggled onwards, Hidan forced himself to keep smiling, sensing Deidara glancing at him from the other side of the room. He had to at least pretend that he fit in; he didn't want to go begging back to his old best friend when things didn't work out.

But perhaps he wouldn't have to; things seemed to be going pretty well so far. Kakuzu was still a bit quiet after the morning's events, but Zetsu seemed like a genuinely nice guy, if a bit different. Without Itachi, Hidan found himself in his element. The popular group may have been small, but sitting at their table, Hidan could feel in control of the whole school.


	37. Similarities

**Similarities**

Itachi turned the straighteners off for the second time that morning and left them on the heatproof mat to cool down, whilst he retrieved his blazer from the towel rail in the bathroom where it was drying. There was still a slight damp patch but he had washed the soggy cornflakes off and it wasn't that noticeable on the black fabric.

Understandably, Itachi was not in the best of moods. His position as unspoken leader was at stake, and not only that but he was being replaced by one of the most irritating and immature boys in school. He had to gain control again, but with his reputation that wouldn't be too difficult. What bothered him was how easily he had been replaced.

Obviously, the gang needed him. He was rumored to be one of the most dangerous guys in Konoha, and was, by rights, far too important to waste his time organizing petty school raids; they should have been honored to have his assistance in their plans. Perhaps he took that for granted, but he had hoped they valued him for more than his genius.

He stopped at Pein's office on the way to his first lesson; it paid to be up to date with whatever was happening to the school. The others might not all have noticed, but they were obviously in pretty grave financial difficulties. The trust was helping, but Itachi knew that without it the school would have been shut down already.

There were two doors in the office, one opened into the corridor, the other opened into Konan's office next door. She was the school nurse and counselor, and the boys all knew her well, each being allotted a quarter-hour counseling session per fortnight.

This arrangement meant that Itachi could easily leave as soon as he heard Pein approaching either door, but he didn't need to spend long here. A couple of notices lay in the headmaster's letter tray, but there was no news from Tsunade or anything else of use to him.

He took the keys to the desk drawers from their place on top of the filing cabinet, and unlocked the top one where he knew Pein kept letters or notes that he needed to deal with but hadn't had time to respond to yet.

Most of the contents, he had seen before, but there was one new envelope, still sealed and marked with the trust symbol. He reached into the drawer hoping he would be able to open and read it without tearing the envelope, but at that moment, he heard the door open at the end of the corridor and tell-tale voices indicating the return of Pein and Konan.

Quickly, he slipped the envelope back into the drawer, before closing it and placing the key in its place on top of the cabinet. He left the room briskly, closing the door to the nurse's office as the door from the corridor swung open.

With one ear to the door, he listened to Pain and Konan entering the other room, their voices too hushed to hear through the thick wooden door that separated Itachi from them. It was only then that he realized they should still have been at the staff meeting; there had to be something wrong. After a few moments he remembered what it was and chided himself for not having realized sooner; of course they must have seen the messages outside. And with the school in as much trouble as it was already, Pein would not be at all happy.

Especially when Itachi remembered the damage to staff cars, and the distinctly non-uniform colour of the railings.

The voices stopped for a moment, and Itachi could hear the beeping noise of a phone number being dialed. Stepping away from the door, he turned to Konan's desk where sure enough the phone rested on the table, green light flashing, indicating that the line was in use. Itachi picked it up, listening to the dialing tone, before there was a click as Tsunade picked it up.

"Hello?"

"It's Pein" Itachi heard his headmaster reply, his voice heavy.

"Ah, how good to speak to you again…" Tsunade replied, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. The only time they spoke was if one of them had a complaint to make, and there had been plenty of complaints made on both sides. "What is it this time?"

"What it is, is your students. _Again_."

Tsunade sighed. "Perhaps you could be more specific? I know you seem to think that I am solely responsible for everything that goes wrong, but I assure you that I have no idea what you're referring to."

"Then you had better pay more attention to what your pupils get up to." Pein replied, his voice irritated. "You might not care, but I will inform the police next time something like this happens. Several members of staff had property damaged, and you are doing nothing to prevent it."

On the contrary, Tsunade had been working all week trying to persuade the students that such acts of vandalism were wrong, but her assemblies were having no effect. In the eyes of Konoha high, the Akatsuki boys were spoiled brats who deserved everything they had coming.

" _Mr_. Pein, I am afraid you _know_ the police pay no attention to the squabbling of school children, whether they involve your property or not. We have both tried that before and you know that if it wasn't for your boys deliberately provoking our kids there wouldn't be a problem."

"But how am _I _supposed to stop them?"

"You think I can control things any better than you can?"

"At least you could pay for damages! It's not like you can't afford it."

"Like yours, our school _does_ have a limited budget. I'm afraid I can't go lending money to random people."

"You think _your_ budget's limited? Our kids have been having nothing but jacket potatoes and breakfast cereal for the past week because we're _that _close to having to close down."

"For_ God's sake_, Pein, I run a _school _not a _charity_. Just because _your _school is failing doesn't mean _I _have to support it."

"It _isn't_ failing. We're just running through a…" at that moment the door handle turned and Itachi slammed the phone back onto the cradle, his expression agitated, brushing his bangs away from his forehead as Konan entered.

"Ah… Miss, I was worried you wouldn't be here for ages… May I have some paracetamol? I have a headache again." Like Deidara, Itachi could lie pretty convincingly.

"Of course, Itachi." She turned to the medicine cabinet, retrieving the correct packet of tablets. Anyone else, she would have examined first, but she had been Itachi's counselor for a few years and trusted him to know what he needed. The boy was a genius after all, and he couldn't do much harm with paracetamol anyway. He was a tough boy, despite his more feminine appearance, and he had too much pride to visit the nurse unless he was ill enough to actually need to.

She could fill in the correct medical forms when he had gone, for now she handed him the correct dose along with the green slip that excused him from being late for maths.

He dumped the tablets in the bin in the corridor; he didn't need them, so there was no point in taking them. He always found pills slightly creepy anyway.

XXXXX

Naruto sat next to Sasuke whilst they were waiting for registration; their chairs pushed as close together as was socially acceptable for friends. Naruto had draped his arm over the back of his boyfriend's chair, as casually as possible, leaning over to share the manga that he was reading.

To be honest, Naruto had little patience for manga, it seemed repetitive and a bit too longwinded for him, but anything that meant he could sit closer to Sasuke was fine by him. The Uchiha did seem a little bit too obsessive about it though, another point that Kiba used against him.

It didn't help that Sasuke read twice as fast as him, so he never knew what was going on. He wished that he could just have a normal conversation with him like everyone else in the room could do, but after last night's argument, the Uchiha was unlikely to give up his reading to keep Naruto happy.

On the other side of the brightly lit form room, Ino was already telling Shikamaru off for still not having worked on his English presentation. He was just trying to forget about it; he knew he didn't have time to finish it today, but Ino's "you're going to _die_" attitude wasn't helping. It wasn't long until Sakura entered, beaming, and the conversation soon turned to the upcoming party.

"Oi! Mate!" Kiba yelled unnecessarily loudly, sitting on Sasuke's desk, and completely ignoring the Uchiha. Naruto looked up, shuffling the chair away from his boyfriend and retrieving his arm from the back of the other boy's chair.

"Yo." Naruto replied, grinning. Kiba might not have been so beautiful, or even so nice, but at least he was always in the mood to talk to him, and didn't go off on an Uchiha-sulk for days on end.

"We did a good job last night, I was walking by Tsunade's office earlier and she was on the phone to Pein, yelling her head off."

Naruto winced, painfully aware that Sasuke was listening to their conversation, despite the fact that he was pretending to read. He opened his mouth, about to direct the conversation in a more 'Sasuke friendly' direction, when Ino beat him to it.

"Kiba, Naruto! We have a change of plan!" she called, over-dramatically, making her way over to them between the desks, Sakura close behind her.

"What?" Naruto asked, confused as ever.

"We," She paused for effect, "Are going to have a _swimming_ party! Shikamaru says Asuma says he can get them to open the school pool for us!"

Kiba grinned, "Hell yes! Oh and I know you ladies only planned this so you could see me topless!" He winked, laughing. The girls ignored him.

"Oh, Sasuke, I didn't see you behind Kiba. You're invited too, obviously." Ino smiled, glad that everyone seemed happy with her plan.

XXXX

Hidan spent break in the computer room. The others were eating downstairs, but he had claimed that he needed to print something off. He had taken a slightly mushy looking apple from the dining hall, on Kakuzu's demand, but he didn't feel like eating it and decided that he wasn't hungry enough anyway. He had skipped his run, so he would have to cut down on calories and do an extra mile or so tomorrow.

Dropping his bag on the floor, he sat down; typing in the password and hitting enter. He needed to vent; that was part of the reason he came here; his email partner seemed to be in pretty much the same position as he was, at least regarding annoying rival schools and unobtainable crushes.

Not that Hidan liked to think of Kakuzu as a crush; the term was irritating and girly, but he couldn't think of a more manly term. Unrequited love perhaps? No. Whilst he liked Kakuzu a lot, he certainly didn't love him; it was just a passing obsession, and Hidan knew he was prone to obsessing over things. Kakuzu was just another one of them, along with perfect fingernails, keeping 'in shape' and getting to the next level of whatever game he was focusing on.

He always needed a mission, and sooner or later something like this was going to happen. Like the time when he had spent an entire month trying to get Deidara to curl his hair, he would simply have to wait until it blew over, because it was never going to happen.

The computer finally loaded, but he knew he wouldn't have time to write another email before the end of break. Frustrated at the slow computer, but even more frustrated at himself, he pulled out the plugs, not bothering to turn it off properly.

Kakuzu hadn't insulted since the incident.

It was really starting to creep him out. Things weren't going to be the same, but he had hoped they wouldn't be quite this awkward. Kakuzu was treating him in almost the same way that Zetsu treated Tobi, and for once, Hidan just wanted things to be normal again.

Overnight, he had lost his best friend, and now his room mate was treating him like something to be pitied and looked after. Suddenly a part of him had to suppress the urge to tear the whole room up. He could visualize the shattering glass as computer screens smashed, electricity sparking as he tore them apart, with a strength that in real life he did not posses.

He could burn the whole place down, he could kill all of them, just end everything. None of them were happy anyway, and if they were they didn't deserve to be.

Perhaps this time he could die to? Chocking on thick black smoke as flames tore apart his life as they had done before. Perhaps this time they would take him with them.

Feeling tears beginning to prick his eyes, he grabbed his bag and set off for his next lesson; blinking, and trying to clear his mind of the flames.

Downstairs, he began to run; the corridor empty and eerily quiet. His bag swung out behind him, hitting his leg as he ran, but as he crossed the hall he didn't care. He could feel the adrenalin, making him feel like he was flying, and decided to take the four steps up to the hall door in one leap, before realizing this wasn't possible and, catching his foot on the last one, ending up splayed out in front of the door as some upper-sixth guys entered, stopping abruptly to avoid tripping over him, before walking past, shooting him annoyed glances.

"God… why do these year eights run everywhere? I thought they were supposed to grow out of that by the end of their first year…"

He got up quickly, turning to yell after them, "I'm not in year eight you heathen bastards! Do I look like a little kid?! And its _Jashin_ not God!" He trailed off, realizing that they weren't listening any more. Embarrassed, he bent down to pick up his bag, but a voice from behind him cut in.

"You can't blame them, you do act rather young for your age." Itachi said, and Hidan realized he had come from the side door; he must have seen the whole thing.

Hidan flicked him off, but Itachi spoke again before he could leave. "I rather enjoyed your company at breakfast this morning, Hidan."

"You what?" The Jashinist asked, uncomfortable talking to the boy he both respected and loathed.

"It gave me a chance to see what a complete twat you really are…" Itachi's voice was cold, cutting through him, "Before this morning I was half considering letting you hang around with us, it is after all rather pitiful the way you follow Kakuzu around, pining after him like you do… But I guess that's not my problem. So try anything like that again, and I might find somebody to _take care of you_ for me. I _am_ an Uchiha you know."

Hidan gulped. He _did_ know. There were lots of rumors around the Uchiha Family case, and whilst there was no real evidence behind them it wasn't worth taking risks with Itachi. It was the general consensus that he had framed his parents for the death of his best friend, in order to gain charge of the drugs trafficking network that supplied half of Konoha and the surrounding counties. As far fetched as it might seem, there was something about Itachi that made it seem not so unlikely. And Itachi was a genius, certainly capable of doing so.

Plus, there was no denying that he had money; probably enough to buy the whole school if he wanted to.


End file.
